6. Blue Skies by Tamara Allen: Allen is an m/m author who writes sweet and historical for the most part, which means she isn't read nearly as widely as she should be. She's incredibly talented. I loved her Downtime, so I was excited to read this. It's time travel, with a brother/sister team who get involved in historic preservation in NYC. Two romances, one het, one gay. I should've loved this. Unfortunately, I didn't. It's just not her best work. The jumping around isn't clean enough not to be confusing, and both romances are rushed in spite of chapters spent on characterization. - C
7. Be Near Me by Andrew O'Hagan: The story of a priest transplanted to a Scottish town where he doesn't fit in, and then gets caught up in a scandal with a fifteen year-old boy. I really enjoyed the prose on this, but when it reached the part about the scandal, my frustrations with the priest took over and my enjoyment dropped considerably. He's self-centered and really unlikable because of his entire lack of responsibility about everything that is going on. The prose most definitely did not make up for that. - D+
8. A Change of Season by Anya Bast: DNF. Fantasy het erotic romance. I've read other Bast and liked it, but ohmigod, not this one. I gave up after two chapters.
Books currently in the pipeline: The Casual Vacancy by JK Rowling, Trash by Dorothy Allison, and A Hellion in Her Bed by Sabrina Jeffries. It would be nice to love one of these.
