Earth. BBC. **** Chris Packham presents a history of origins in David Attenborough style. Worth viewing.
Why buildings collapse BBC **** Frightening look at why some building collapse without apparent warning. The focus is on the apartments in Florida but the current situation with RAAC in UK makes it compulsive viewing.
I’ve been reading a lot (the Brit summer didn’t happen) and can highly recommend the following:
Wrath and other Troubles by TJ Nichols***** Lovely (as usual) volume in the Mytho series. After the vote as to whether the paranormals are human…
Seeing through Shadows by Jackson Marsh***** Great addition to the Larkspur Mysteries – Chester (new character) and Frank Andino.
To love the dragon king by Antonia Aquilante ***** A new writer to me. Gorgeous mm fantasy romance with enough thriller element to counteract sweetness. This was an ARC but I’m very happy to promote it. I’ve reviewed it in more detail for Scott’s review site.
Defying Logic by Nicky James***** Excellent missing persons mystery in the Doyle and Valor series with Quaid and Aslan developing their relationship and their lives in the aftermath of the previous book. I don’t think it would be as good if not read in order.
Help Wanted by Marshall Thornton***** Nice addition to the series (Pinx Videos in LA). Javier is wrongly accused.
Solstice by Eli Easton and RJ Scott***** Will definitely follow the series! Sheriff and animal behaviourist investigate murder with help from a dog.
The Blue Bar by Damyanti Biswas***** Another new writer to me. Gripping crime story set in Mumbai. Will order the sequel when it comes out. Interesting to see similarities and differences between Indian and UK police (with their common origin).
Sapphire Water by Adam J Ridley***** This rounds off the series with the siblings getting jewels and having to deal with various paranormal problems. This time it’s a ‘lost’ half brother. It was good seeing all the characters again and watching the town develop. Satisfactory conclusion to the story arc.
Stardust Wake and Jurassic Dark by Si Clarke. ***** Quirky shorts in the Starship Teapot ‘verse including how Lem got Spock!
Tracefinder: Contact by Kaje Harper. ***** Totally intriguing story about an undercover cop (Nick) and a guy with the ability to ‘find’ people (Brian). The series continues with Changes**** and Choices**** Well worth following the whole story.
The Romantic Reads group I belong to is running a summer flash fic challenge, based on photographs voted on by the group. My fic got its outing today, and I hope you’ll like it and also have a look at the others posted so far. It’s been an interesting thing to do. Some time ago I was in an online writing group where we wrote weekly flash fics to a prompt and critiqued each other’s work; I learnt a lot from that experience. It really is a challenge to produce a story that contains all the information you need about the world and characters in less than a thousand words and make the plot interesting too.
Those Easter lambs grew up and are indistinguishable from their mothers apart from the fact that the mothers are shorn.
Just recommendations again, with one warning.
TV
There she goes. **** BBC iPlayer David Tenant in a fascinating series about a family with a severely learning disabled child.
Umbrella Academy Season 3**** Netflix How dark can it get? And now we have to wait till 2024 and hope the actor/writer strike doesn’t make it even further away.
Books
The Butterfly Hunter boxed set by Julie Bozza**** Trilogy of novels plus a short story.A lovely mm romance set mostly in the Australian outback with elements of paranormal or at least a nod to Dreamtime stories.
Dead Souls by Ian Rankin.**** Gripping novel in the Rebus series – one I’d missed!
Power of Zero series by Jackie Keswick****
I’d read the first in this series and finally got to the rest!
House Hunt**** Jack goes UC re drugs, then gets kidnapped during investigation re break ins at Nancarrow Mining. Quite tense and complex.
Swings and Roundabouts **** More excitement for Jack and Gareth. Murder mystery in Sweden.
Dating Games **** shorts set during the other novels
Apidae by Xenia Melzer**** Possibly the last in a great series about a detective who can communicate with insects, spiders, etc. .
Unstable Connections by Nicky James**** Discoveries re Juniper in the Doyle/Valor series.
Inevitable Disclosure by Nicky James***** Really gripping plot and the Doyle/Valor relationship is progressing nicely.
The Altered 3 by Anabelle Jacobs**** This finishes the story arc nicely. An interesting shifter mm trilogy.
The Distant Echo by Val McDermid**** It was weird reading something I watched on TV ages ago. Some differences – I think due to them wanting to give detective Karen Pirie a greater role in this first of a TV series.
Overdue and Occultism by Jamie Sands**** Sweet mm story featuring a witch and a ghost hunter in a haunted NZ library.
The Clockwork City by Shelley Adina **** Excellent addition to her steampunk universe, plus a murder investigation. An ARC read which I have reviewed for Scott Coatsworth
Luck of the Draw by Addison Albright**** Nicely told story of an arranged marriage but a bit short. Another ARC read with a review for Scott
The Untouchable Sky by Will Forrest* One star because it ended on a cliffhanger without ever having referred to a series. Quite an intriguing story about a young man who learns about his magic in adulthood after having been treated as insane. Included here as a warning. By all means read it if you’re happy to read the entire series.
I happily rewatched Casablanca, and saw a lot of the coverage of Glastonbury. Nothing else of note.
Books
A stand-alone non fiction book:
The Vanishing Triangle by Claire McGowan*** An absorbing look at crime against women in modern Ireland but it was rather repetitive. Written by a crime author rather than a journalist it was surprisingly poorly structured. Very thought provoking, and has broader implications for other countries too.
Some series:
I really enjoy good series, and find a great deal of pleasure in getting to know the characters, both major and minor, in detail, and being immersed in the location.
General fantasy
Empire of Grass by Tad Williams**** General fantasy. This volume hooked me into the universe just as much as book 1 but I resented the way it ended on cliffhangers for virtually all the main characters. Plus the sequel is priced higher for the ebook despite a font problem which had me nearly giving up with the first book which I had in paperback.
Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries by Heather Fawcett**** Fascinating magic and world building. There is a sequel. This is not an mm series but there is a delightful ff pairing of minor characters which is treated as perfectly normal and adds to the pleasure of the story.
Series with mm focus:
Broadway Butchery by CS Poe***** Book 3 in the Memento Mori series. I find both Larkin and Doyle totally fascinating, and the mysteries are nicely complex as is their relationship. Highly recommended. .
Eruca by Xenia Melzer**** Good second investigation for this pair. Andy’s ability to communicate with insects is both helpful in terms of police work and devastating for him.
Elusive relations by Nicky James**** I am following this series set in Toronto about this couple of detectives in an enemies to lovers situation.
Ellery Mountain series by RJ Scott**** There are ten books altogether and I have now read them all. It’s nice to follow multiple characters and get to know the town plus following the setting up of a retreat for veterans. Each story is ‘just’ a pleasant and well written romance but the series as a whole deserves four stars for the world building and the way even minor characters are developed so that the reader cares what happens to them.
Hidden Gem by Lissa Kasey. **** I like Lissa’s writing. This is an mm series. Worth wading through the mild bdsm to get the fascinating sci fi plot. I might read book 2 but suspect a lot of the story has already been covered, briefly, and it’s about minor characters from book 1 rather than more about the main pairing, which I liked.
I found my extensive lists were getting in the way of my writing, so will, for the time being, just entio things of real note.
Viewing:
Unforgotten Season 5. ITV . I had been sad to lose Cassie as the lead detective but thought her replacement was great. Jessie is an interesting character with her own set of personal problems and this helped develop Sunny’s character too. A strong plot with a clever ending enabled the series to branch out from the old formula which I thought was getting a bit tired.
Annika Season 1. BBC. Where Nicola Walker ended up after Cassie ‘died’ in Unforgotten! Interesting police drama with quite a lot of the main character, Annika, ‘speaking’ her thoughts to the audience which was a new ‘breaking the fourth wall’ departure for cop shows in my experience. Nice locations from Glasgow out to the islands.
Reading
The Witchwood Crown by Tad Williams. This is the first novel in the new series (The Last King of Osten Ard) set in the kingdoms familiar from Memory, Sorrow and Thorn. I’d read the bridging book, The Heart of What was Lost. I don’t think anyone who hadn’t read the first series or the bridge would have the slightest chance of understanding what was going on, but I was completely hooked and drawn back into the world. Simon, hero of the first series and now high king, is reaching the end of his reign but old problems are returning. Fabulous cast of well developed characters, and some superb world building. I really feel as if I’d been in Osten Ard. I have already bought book 2 – in ebook format this time. Book 1 was a requested gift, in paperback format, and the font was so small I had serious problems reading it but had to know what happened.
For some time I have been meaning to put some of my books into Kindle Unlimited to see whether it would improve the number of readers I can attract. I finally decided to do this for the series The Skilled Investigators because I have committed to a blog for National Crime Reading Month (this June): Bring Crime out of the Closet. The blog tour deals with crime involving mm romance and of course in my series Genef’s brother is gay and his search for a HEA forms the secondary plot arc of the books.
Putting books into KU means removing them from other platforms such as Smashwords as the sites do not play nicely together. No mention of ‘the other place’ is allowed on either. I thought it would be simply a matter of unpublishing then realised I would also have to change the back matter in all my Smashwords books to reflect the fact that the series was no longer available on Smashwords. I duly created a changed back matter that would hopefully not need to be changed again even if I ever put anything else into KU. Instead of a list that could need constant updating I just referred readers to my website and the buy links there. Simple? Well, no, because the act of uploading new versions seemed to snarl up a lot of formatting even though only one paragraph was the issue. I still have to reformat, completely, my two novels The Virgin and the Unicorn and The Seekers because somehow Smashwords have now found various errors that were not, to their knowledge or mine, evident when the books were first published. The books are available on Smashwords but can’t be distributed to other sites because the conversion to Epub fails. I could have understood errors in the new back matter but not in the body of the text.
Then putting the series into KU seemed like a simple procedure but for about 24 hours Amazon seemed to jumble up my entire output. It insisted I only had six books instead of 17. Then it arbitrarily gave a cost of: free with Kindle Unlimited; £230 to buy… though in fact the figure should have read £2.30. The power of the point… Sorted, but quite nerve-racking while it all lasted. And despite having published the books as a series, with volume numbers etc. carefully noted and all boxes ticked, Amazon doesn’t give the series below each book.
I get the impression that some authors manage to switch books between KU and other non-Amazon sites without all this chaos. I’d love to know how they do it!
I will keep you informed about how the trial of KU goes, and about the blog tour.
I decided to change the format of my reviews at least until someone complains. For the time being I’ll just do recommendations for five star viewing and reading for the month in question. I still have a full record of all I’ve watched and read but won’t share unless asked!
Here we go with recommendations from April.
Viewing:
Umbrella Academy S2***** Netflix. I am mesmerised by this series. Sci fi, adventure, and mystery with totally relatable characters. Will the gifted group save the world or is their presence the actual threat?
Carnival Row S2***** Amazone Prime. I adored Carnival Row and am sad that it finished but appreciate the explanation that the story is indeed over. However, I wish they’d think up another story using the same incredible world with all the detail – it seems such a waste not to! Season 2 was dark. At times I could barely watch, and it made Game of Thrones look tame. But it was wonderful and the ending was marvellously satisfactory.
Blue Lights***** BBCThis is a brilliant and superbly acted cop drama set in Belfast in the present day. Three new cops are being mentored by three ‘old hands’ and we are introduced to all kinds of believable back stories plus all kinds of believable crime. At times I left an episode not altogether sure whether I’d watched a drama or a real life story. I understand a second season has been commissioned and can’t wait.
Reading:
Arthropoda by Xenia Melzer*****Excellent crime story with a detective who can talk to insects. A totally ‘new’ concept that makes for fascinating detection. There’s a hint of cop buddy romance but I suspect it’s going to go the bromance or ACE relationship router. I’m going to follow the series.
Madison Square Murders by CS Poe.***** Intriguing ‘cold’ case crime drama with fascinating detectives and a hint of mm romance. When I finished the last page I went straight to buy the second in this Memento Mori series.
How to love thine enemy by Eli Easton***** As usual, I am fascinated by this author’s world of dog shifters, both born that way and ‘quickened’ and this time she adds Inuit culture and locations.
Bought daffodils. The ones in our garden are the mini variety and we don’t pick them.
Both reading and viewing in one post this time.
The best of what I read:
Sloth and other delights by TJ Nichols***** I adore this series. The characters are so complex and interesting and the world building is amazing. To say that it follows a human cop and his dragon shifter partner doesn’t give it any of the nuances it deserves. I know there are at least two more volumes and am not sure whether to gobble them up or ration myself.
Keeper of Enchanted Rooms by Charlie N Holmberg***** Gorgeous mf romance set in an alternate universe where magic is normal but rare. Merritt inherits an enchanted house and Hulda is sent to help him adjust. There is plenty of danger, not least from the house, but also from a fascinating villain. The magic is interesting and unusual. Apart from the added magical element the period (mid nineteenth century) is beautifully evoked.
Deliverance by Jason Bray**** Fascinating real life Merrily (crime series about diocesan exorcist) and it seems Bray helped Rickman create some of Merrily’s cases and solutions. Probably mostly of interest if you follow the Rickman series.
The Knight and the Necromancer by AH Lee**** Interesting and three dimensional characters plus good world building and some fascinating magic. This is volume one; Roland and Sair have started to bond and Queen Daphne might be safe for now, but there is no resolution or even a HFN. I shall be reading the sequel.
Postscript by Anne Barwell**** A delightful mm romance featuring a magic bookshop and a possibly ghostly cat. I enjoyed both threads of the story, past and present, but am still slightly confused by the apparent time travel, something that always plays havoc with my brain.
Run Wild, Run Free by Fiona Glass**** Pleasant gentle romance set in ‘50s UK though I was a bit puzzled by the way 18 was referred to as a special birthday. At the time, 21 was the usual celebration. I was also concerned that Joe couldn’t access further education at an art college. He would have left school at 15 and gone ‘down the pit’ or stayed till 18 at which point his local authority would have provided further ed without cost to his parents.
Stone Skin by Jenn Burke**** Lovely sequel to Stone Wings. The cursed gargoyles make fascinating characters.
Queer Weird West Tales ed. Julie Bozza.**** As is usual for an anthology, this is a mixture of excellent and merely good. One story,The Train Ticket by Dannye Chase, really resonated with me. In my alter ego on AO3 I’m partially responsible for a collection of stories that echo this one: Ain’t no rest for the wicked: tales of the train ed moth2fic and rubyelf. The tales are not specifically fanfic but use fandom tropes and in some cases backgrounds. https://archiveofourown.org/collections/aintnorestforthewicked )
Safe House by Chris Ewan**** Unusual spy thriller set on Isle of Man.
The Peacekeeper by BI Blanchard**** Some brilliant world building in this crime story set in an AU where America was never colonised. However, although I enjoyed the details of the twentyfirst century life of Native Americans, I realised who the killer was long before it dawned on any of the police/peace keepers. Worth reading but I won’t follow the author.
Readable:
Clueless by E Broom*** Cute story but the magic didn’t quite ring true
The Christmas Rescue by VL Locey*** Nice romance featuring the snowed-in trope.
Pole Position by Kristian Parker*** Thoroughly readable mm romance set in the world of Formula 1 motor racing and in the Queen’s Crescent ‘universe’ that the author is developing. I find it hard to get into the mindset of top sports people and although I watch and enjoy Formula 1 this didn’t appeal to me as much as I hoped.
Year of the Rat by Marshall Thornton*** Competent private investigator story about freeing an innocent man from prison. There were a lot of mysteries about the PI narrator and then right at the end he was linked to a different series and I was somehow disappointed.
Blinding Light by BL Maxwell*** A Rocktoberfest novel and this time there was plenty of interesting information about management and backstage things. However, the mm pairing agreed not to explore their feelings till after Rocktoberfest then when that was over we saw them leave, and the next chapter was an epilogue which assumed they were together. There was some explicit UST earlier but I found the ending disappointing.
On the third kiss by George Loveland. *** Pleasant mm romance, nicely written but with some tired tropes.
Still Life with Murder by Patricia Ryan*** Competent crime investigation story set in Boston, US, in the aftermath of the civil war. I wasn’t sufficiently drawn to the female sleuth to continue with the rest of the series.
Less recommended:
Bear and Fred by Iris Argaman** Intended as a memorial to children uprooted by WWII, this is a disappointing book that glosses over some of the worse aspects of the children’s experiences and relies on the ‘ahh’ factor of the teddy bear. It’s a children’s book and is not, I think, the best of its kind. It compares very unfavourably with books like Judith Kerr’s When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit, and whilst it is perhaps aimed at even younger readers I feel if they aren’t old enough to hear sad stories they should perhaps be made to wait a while. It is also worth noting that the book is not really suitably formatted for ebook reading. I got it ‘free’ as an Amazon Prime first read but would have felt let down if I’d paid for it.
The Christmas Ghosts of Rothery Hall by Graham Peace. Abandoned. The style simply wasn’t for me so this isn’t an actual criticism, just an expression of personal taste.
Windswept and Interesting by Billy Connolly. Abandoned. Somehow, Billy’s humour and fierceness don’t come across in the written word the same way they do in live performances. I got bored very quickly.
I have been culling my tbr pile on my Kindle and have deleted a large number of books I should never have downloaded in the first place. I haven’t listed them and it wouldn’t, in most cases, even be fair to say I abandoned them as I didn’t read more than a few pages. (Less than the ‘sample’ Amazon tend to offer!) I think once upon a time I was beguiled by offers of free books, and in some cases of extremely cheap ones. I hope I have learnt my lesson. The cull continues…
Excellent viewing:
The Third Man***** I didn’t mean to watch but got hooked for yet another viewing. Brilliant as ever.
Vera 12:Episodes 2 and 3 (ITVX)***** As I’ve said before, I love this series, not least because it’s set in my native city.
The Bay Series 4**** (ITVX) I think the cop show set in Morecambe has developed well and it’s good the way the cops’ personal problems are not only made very real but don’t overshadow the crime plot. They also feed into it in unexpected ways.
Unmasking my autism – Charlotte McGuiness BBC**** Interesting programme looking at autism in women.
The boy, the mole, the fox and the horse.**** Animated film for children and adults first shown at Christmas and still available on iPlayer for the rest of the year. Recced last month and it got an Oscar for best animated short so I thought I’d mention it again.
The Night Stalker My5**** Real life crime in Perth, Australia. It was interesting to compare their policing with ours (UK), and the reactions of the victims added to the effect of the show.
Watchable
The Blob***(and the real one***). I can’t recall the name of the ‘real’ programme (or which channel both were shown on) but it was about slime mould and was fascinating at times. Then we watched the old film which, although dated, had some extremely tense moments.
Rocketman*** The Elton John biopic. I quite enjoyed the music.
Dire
The Wall. All4. Canadian noir. ** Almost abandoned but husband was watching. The entire thing is filmed either in semi darkness or against snow, both of which are presumably correct for the Canadian mining town setting, but the French Canadian accents were difficult and many of the subtitles were set against snow… Virtually all the cast spent their time in winter weather gear and it was often impossible to tell who was who. The plot, or what I gathered of it, was less than inspiring.
Better BBC iPlayer. I actually abandoned this even though husband was watching. The lead character is a female, ethnic minority, corrupt cop and the whole thing seemed so full of stereotypes and attempts to break some kind of wall that I just couldn’t watch.
My book is now published. Amazon were happy straight away. Smashwords had a problem converting to epub because there were hidden text boxes in the word document. Now sorted. I hope they don’t suddenly reappear in the Kindle version because Amazon don’t seem to give you the opportunity to reupload unless they’ve asked you to!
Well, I’ve uploaded it to Amazon and Smashwords, wrestled with possible blurbs (many many thanks to Rebecca Cohen) and agonised over categories, tags, etc. Apparently you’re not expected to have both mm and mf romances in the same story. Real life should clearly not intrude on fiction… I’ve hopefully given each site the correct versions. For example, Smashwords won’t have anything to do with docx whereas that’s Amazon’s preference even though till about a year ago they liked a web page. Their cover sizes differ, too. I’m never convinced they’ll use my correct pen name because of course I have to use my legal/banking name with them for tax purposes. I’m also usually terrified that they’ll shout at me because something has gone drastically wrong. The only time they ever did was when I forgot to tick the ISBN box, but you never know! I’ve chosen a price – at random really, because I can never decide what price things should be. It’s a question of a selling point rather than actual worth, after all. I suspect the Kindle version won’t have a live table of contents because I got stuck, for the first time, on creating one that looked reasonable. Smashwords do it for you provided you format the chapter headings a certain way. Now I’ll live with low level angst until both sites tell me the book is live – and then till Smashwords tell me whether they consider it worthy of distribution to various other platforms. I’ll let you know!
Jay's World 