Hi, there! I gave up on caring about which time I post what, as which really counts is the posting, right? Yup, I thought so, haha!
It’s Tuesday, so it’s Top 10 Tuesday day! This meme is hosted by The Broke and the Bookish and my theme today is Most Unfortunate Character Names – yup, still a rebel and not doing the free theme, haha!
Before I start this list, I’d like to say that those are unfortunate names for me, because of something that happened in my life or someone that I met and didn’t like. It doesn’t mean the name is bad at all most of times 🙂
In no particular order, let’s begin:
1) Severus Snape, from Harry Potter
from my Instagram
Seriously? Can you just imagine the amount of bullying poor Snape suffered thanks to his name as a child and teen? (And this one is just bad, honestly)
2) Seth Andrews, from The Hidden Life [review here]
Seth was one of my favorite males ever, but WHY DID HIS NAME HAD TO BE SETH? This is the name of the God of Death in the Egyptian mythology and, as a good geek, I’m too used to think of Seth as someone evil 😦 Also, this was the name that I picked for all the bad guys in my childish Barbie plays, so I really have a negative connection with it… If karma exists, I shall marry a Seth someday.
3) Peter Stoller, from The Fall and Rise of Peter Stoller [review here]
Another case in which the name is not to blame. My family is from Germany, so I grew up with the German culture right beside me 24/7. One of the typical foods that my family loves is a sweet cake called Stollen, so I kept having ridiculous giggle attacks during the whole book – especially when I realized that Peter was just as interesting as the said sweet cake. Oh, and in my case, this is so not a compliment, haha!
This is a Stollen – Wikipedia picture
4) Rowan, from Rowan of Rin series
I even mentioned this on the review of the first book [here]: this character’s name reminds me of Ronan, from the Grand Chase game, so I keep imagining said Ronan in the place of my darling Rowan, haha!
Another case in which the name is just bad. I still don’t even know how to pronounce it! America for sure didn’t love her daughter to name her that way and I can totally understand why.
Back to the “names are not the culprits” section. Shelley is an okay name… If you don’t watch The Big Bang Theory. Sheldon Cooper’s mom calls him Shelly and more often than not someone would call Shelley on What Lies Within and I’d smirk alone. I know, I’m stupid LOL
I have a pretty messed up relationship with that name, as all the guys I ever met that had been given this name were jerks or assholes. So when my goddess Ava named one of her characters Gabriel and he also turned up to be a jerk and an asshole, I got depressed 😦
8) Ned, from Bedding Lord Ned
Who in hell though it was a nice idea to nickname someone whose name is Edward with NED? Can someone please explain this logic to me? Besides being bad and totally random on my opinion, this name reminds me of a really stupid cartoon that I used to hate as a child, called Ned’s Newt. It was disgusting and I kept remembering it while reading this book – btw, the book is awesome, haha!
9) Klaus Baudelaire, from A Series of Unfortunate Events
I save the best ones to the end, as my motive for this one is downward ridiculous. I actually like the name Klaus, it’s fancy and sounds manly, but I watched this soap opera when I was a child I’ve been sharing many childhood stories today, oops! called Chocolate with Pepper (a free translation from the Brazilian original title Chocolate com Pimenta) and the small city banker was called Count Klaus. What does this have to do with poor Klaus Baudelaire? Simple. Count Klaus was a poor ugly thing that was a sort of funny villain and was called an old goat by his poor fiancé.
Btw, this was one of the best soap operas that I have even seen, set in Brazil’s 1930’s. I wish I knew of a place that has it with English subtitles, you guys would laugh hard! Oh, and did I mentioned that the clothes were terrific? ❤
ANYWAY. Let’s drop the final bomb.
10) Light Yagami, from Death Note
Yes, this is a manga and not really a book, but I needed to put this character here. You’d think that it’s bad enough that his name is “Light”. Nope, you haven’t seen it all. Japanese people have the habit of putting last names before given names on everything, so he is called Yagami Light a lot. Still don’t think that’s bad? Try spelling it out backwards. Not convinced at all? Here, let me help:
IMAGAY LIGHT
If you still didn’t catch it… Try spacing it out:
I’M A GAY LIGHT
THERE, I SAID IT. IT IS SO BAD AND THE GUY IS ALLEGEDLY STRAIGHT HAHAHAHAHAHA
Ahem.
Thanks for reading and sorry that you had to put up with my silliness, haha! Which are some of the most unfortunate characters’ names for you?
Hello again! I’d like to start this post with two warnings: I’ll talk about homosexual books that have explicit sex scenes between two men in this post and I am an extra huge fan of Ava March (which you already know if you follow me for a while or just read this post). If you don’t like this kind of genre or this author, you better stop reading 🙂
This TOP 3 theme is my three favorite authors that write mature romances involving homosexual males. And here they are:
They write together most of the time, but they also release books separately. I’ll talk about them as a team because I think it is only fair, haha! Their stories tend to be dark, be aware – it generally ends with happy endings (haha), but the things that the couple have to go through until there are very heavy. Usually, the plot involves guilt in at least one of the sides of the relationship and the characters use to be broken before they find their true loved ones. My favorite aspects of their work involve that, as well: they can heal through love and their relationships are intense, passionate; there’s not a hint of vulgarity, just pure carnal passion. Honestly, I hate to read vulgar sex scenes (but you already know that after my review for The Claiming of Sleeping Beauty, lol). I have to fell at least a boner between the characters to find it nice. Otherwise, I think it’s not necessary to write it down, just mention it and we’re done. Bonnie and Summer have this care, they really capture their readers through the love that they describe.
All of those books are on the 19th century and wonderful ❤ It’s on my 2016 plans to review The Nobleman and The Spy, but I better not to make any promises, haha!
She was my first into this world. I had a special interest in homosexual romances since I’ve read a manga called Gravitation, that was yaoi. Now I think myself as a little naïve, but I didn’t think there was m/m books, as I only knew mangas. So, this one day in 2012, there was I, browsing Goodreads, when I stumbled on her, more precisely in a book called The Tin Star. When I saw what the book was about, I ran to my father and asked him to buy the eBook for me, because I really needed it. After that, I’ve read one after the other and discovered a whole new world.
And didn’t even need to ask you guys, LOL.
So far, I’ve read all the books she has released and am very anxious to the next one, which Langley is currently working on, called Without Secrets. In her portfolio, you can find two different cowboy series (Ranch and Innamorati), a werewolf series (With or Without) and a kind of steapmunk series, set in the future with a Regency Society in each planet (Sci-Regency). Oh, and her series are sequential – you have to read it in the right order to get many parts 🙂 My favorite books from her are The Tin Star, that was my first, His Convenient Husband, With Caution, With Abandon and My Regelence Rake.
Big surprise, right? Haha! I met Ava shortly after Langley and, in the first book, she had me (I made a really big post about our literary meeting here). I also read all her works so far, including her new book that’s coming out March of 2016, Convincing The Secretary (review here!). Ava likes to write collections and I love her for it because I have a hard time with book endings and knowing that it has brothers always calms me down, haha! She currently has six series, four already finished. They are:
His Client (also finished with one book and one short story).
There are also other two single books (From Afar and Beyond Reckless) and a short story (Twas the Night). All of them are written in the Regency Society and are amazing, but even with Ava (by the way, she’s a sweetie!), I pick favorites. They are, in this order: All In With The Duke, Thief, His Client, From Afar, Object of His Desire and Convincing Leopold. I think the most important message on her books is that even powerful people need to love and to be loved; that no one can be happy alone forever. I explain this point better at All In With The Duke’s review, haha!
Oh, she also points out how it’s important for a good relationship to have fluid and honest communication on both ends 🙂
That’s it, guys! Thanks for reading and I hope I have made good suggestions and that you can come to love those authors as I do ❤ Do you read m/m romances too?
Hi, there! Good morning and happy Saturday! As I already mentioned, Saturday is mainly book tag day, so here we go!
I was tagged FOREVER AGO by sweet Rosema, from A Reading Writer, and wanted to also apologize, as she tagged me on August and I only saw it months later and am only doing the tag today 😦 Sorry, I promise it won’t happen ever again ❤ But let’s go to the actual thing!*
A Book That Kept You Up All Night Reading
Stripped with The Vampire [review here!] and I regret nothing ❤
A Book That Made You Scared To Sleep
Shielded Past [review here!]. Really, the psychological catch on this book melted my mind. I shivered without realizing while reading…
A Book That Made You Go To Sleep
The End, last book in A Series of Unfortunate Events. Seriously, I dreaded it 😦
A Book That Left You Tossing and Turning All Night in Anticipation of its Release
Viscount’s Wager [review here!], from Ava March ❤ [I bet you thought I was going to mention her in the first question, mwahaha mwahaha! Unfortunately, I’ve read Convincing the Secretary during my day light hours…]
A Book That Has Your Dream Boyfriend
The Vampire Diaries series, in which resides Damon Salvatore 🙂
A Book That Would Be Your Worst Nightmare to Live In
Percy Jackson’s. Judge me all you want, I wouldn’t bear to live as a demigod without being able to read my precious books (and don’t you go Annabeth on me, everyone knows she’s Hermione from Percy Jackson series, haha!)
A Book That Reminds You of Night Time
The Tutor [review here!], from Bonnie Dee. The atmosphere of that house made me feel like it was always night 😦
A Book That Had a Nightmarish Cliffhanger
Sanctum, from Madeleine Roux. Honestly, I didn’t want to believe my eyes when my book was over, haha!
A Book That You Actually Dreamed About
Wow, I don’t know… I mean, I often dream with Damon, but it’s not about the book or the show, so I really don’t know, haha!
A Book Monster that You Would Not Want to Find Under Your Bed
Any of the monsters featured on the Deltora Quest series. OMG, I always had the chills while reading those books D:
just look at this friendly fellow.
That’s it! Thanks for reading ❤ Thanks for the tag and sorry again, Rosema! 😀 I had lots of fun doing this! If you are reading this post and likes tags… TAG, you’re it! Hahaha!
*I preferred to use my last read book for each of those experiences 🙂
Hi, there! I was tagged by my sweet Audrey, from the Forwards and Bookwords, forever ago in the Fireworks Book Tag, thank you! Let’s answer it 😀
Screamers: a book that made you want to scream! (in a good way)
Hmm, I would say Viscount’s Wager, from Ava March. Ava sent it to me as an early birthday present and I freaked out both when I won it and when I finished it, haha!
Bombers: a book you read before it exploded in the book community
Hmm, I would say The Book Thief and The Vampire Diaries 🙂
3. Banger: a banned book you read
I honestly don’t know, haha! I’m not aware of any banned books in my country or estate, so I don’t think I have read anything banned so far…
Peony: a book/author you think everybody needs to read
Emily Rodda, for sure. I loved the whole Deltora Quest saga and now I’m totally digging Rowan of Rin series. Love her!
Crossette: a book/series with a complicated plot
The Fellowship of the Ring, first book in the Lord of the Rings saga. Really, I didn’t think it was so entwined when I saw the movies, haha!
Diadem: a book/series with amazing central characters
The Selection, by Kiera Cass. I loved America (and I usually have deep issues with narrator characters), Maxton, Celeste and Aspen… Everything!
Atches: light your own fireworks by tagging five people
Hello, guys! I just wanted to remind you that Ava March’s new book, Viscount’s Wager (review here!), is being released TODAY! I’m so happy, congrats, Ava!! ❤
Hello! Month ending means Monthly Wrap Up! This month, I read most mangas than books, unfortunatelly. I don’t know why, but I’m a slow reader during vacations – makes no sense, haha!
During July, I received my first books to review and got pretty excited! I want to thank all these marvelous authors for the books and give you guys a preview of what’s coming to the blog! Here they are:
Chasing Rainbows, by Linda Oaks – will be started as soon as I finish The Tutor (pretty pretty soon, because I’m devouring it, haha!)
Thank you, everybody! ❤
Also, I have blog good news! Now you can find all my social profiles at the About Annelise page and I’ve inaugurated the Partnerships page! There, it will be listed forever the names of the authors that sent me a book for review and the respective reviews 😀 The page is still under construction, as I am still asking for permissions to write down names on it, but soon it will be oficially on the tracks, haha!
I also would like to thank my 400 friends (the word followers doesn’t sit well for me) at Instagram! I never imagined I could meet so many nice people when I began bookstagramming! Thanks!! *–*
That’s it for now! I also have some mangas I need to review and post here – I already read them, but forgot to do the reviews, shame on me…
Some days ago, I’ve received an early 21º birthday present from one of my favorite authors ever: Ava March. Her new book, Viscount’s Wager, will be out on August 10th (two days before my birthday), but Ava sent me a copy practically a month earlier ❤ Thank you again, Ava! Best gift ever ❤ As a loyal fan, I cheated on my book jar-box and already read it, haha!
Warning: this book is about a male homosexual romance in the 19th century. If you don’t like this gender, you should stop here 🙂
From my Instagram account 🙂
Viscount’s Wager is the third and last volume on Gambling on Love series and is set on Regency London, in 1822. Anthony Hawkins, Viscount Rawling, was already introduced in the first book, All In With The Duke (by the way, you can check its review here! :D) and Gabriel Tilden, his pair, was introduced in the second book of the series, Sharp Love.
Anthony is a noble who doesn’t pay much attention to his duties as a viscount, as he has a huge secret to keep – something way bigger than his social status. Since he inherited the title, at the age of twenty-one, Anthony tries very hard to be a good son to his mother, as his father’s loss was very hard for her. The couple was a love-match, something very rare in London Society at the time, and this marriage so full of happiness and love inspired Anthony since he was a little boy; his dream was to find true love and be able to share the small things of life with this person until the end of their days.
Gabriel is the middle child of a good family, but not a noble one. Being two years older than Anthony, he ended up marring a woman when he was only 18 and lost her six months before the real start of the book – just clarifying, his marriage was not a love-match, so he feels very guilty for being a free man again.
Anthony and Gabriel had a small and brief affair when they were teens, at a house party held by Gabriel’s family, but they lost contact shortly after Gabriel’s engagement. After his wife’s death, Gabriel comes to London and sees Anthony again in a soirée. Their desire was immediate and mutual, so Anthony didn’t let the chance of offering to be Gabriel’s city guide pass.
Soon enough, their passion burns and they start a sort of relationship, but Gabriel insisted in something more casual and distant, as he didn’t thought himself worthy of Anthony’s heart after everything he had put his lover through. The first thing that Gabriel thought when he saw Anthony again was “I’m so sorry I hurt you”. And I think I waited more than Anthony to actually hear Gabriel saying those words, as Anthony didn’t know of Gabriel’s capacity to store guilty in his heart and mind, nor how many times Gabriel thought this single sentence during the book, haha!
All those repressed feelings end up driving Gabriel to a strong vice in gambling. In a determinate point of the book, he simply won’t leave the hells anymore and Anthony finds out about his problem through a favor from Max, the protagonist of AIWTD. Anthony tries to wait, to give a chance for Gabriel to tell him the truth by himself, but this never happens and they have a big fight as a result.
What Anthony didn’t know was that Gabriel had to leave town when he left his lover, as he had got loaned a very large sum with a moneylender to keep gambling and now he hadn’t any means to pay the man back before putting his propriety at Derbyshire in perfect order. Gabriel explains all of this to Anthony in a letter that he sends in the same day that he arrives home, but the viscount wouldn’t see it until three weeks had passed after their argument.
After resorting to Max’s help once again, Anthony finally was able to go to Derbyshire to set things right with Gabriel, but the two still have a long way before their “happily ever after”.
As I commented on the beginning of this review, I’m a great fan of Ava and her works, so I won’t promise an impartial review, haha! Now let’s go to the analysis 😉
Something that is very characteristic of March and that I like very much in her books is that her stories always end up connecting to one another. If she’s writing a series, the probability of meeting previous characters again is very high. I love this, because when a book ends, all that we know about that little world also ends. Even when it’s a book series, as soon as it is finished, it’s hard to learn something new about those characters, as it is a cycle with a beginning, a middle and an end. This may sounds a bit obvious, but I’m that kind of person that, sometimes, gets depresses to know that everything that I know about a story is all that I will ever know.
Anyway, March entwines her stories in such a way that we learn new things about past characters, those who already had their moment to shine and had their story on first frame. It’s also amazing how she illustrates the social circles of the ton – deep down, everybody is connected in some sort of way. It’s a highly interesting social phenomenon, proven by several historians, but that I have never seen put into light by any other romance author so far.
In Viscount’s Wager, we can see how are Alexander Norton and Thomas Bennet, from the opening book of Brook Street series (My True Love Gave To Me); Linus Radcliffe and Robert Anderson, from the third book of the same series (Rogues); Jack Morgan and William Drake, main characters of the second book in the Gambling on Love trilogy (Sharp Love); and, obviously, Max Arrington and Tristan Walsh, from AIWTD. It was very good to see them all again. I missed you, boys! Hahaha!
To be honest, I didn’t really like Gabriel until the book was close to its end. As I already was found of Anthony since the first book, I thought that Gabriel didn’t deserve him until writing that letter. After that, everything changed, haha! I still don’t consider him as one of my favorite characters, but we are in good terms now, haha! I have a serious issue with characters that are in “eternal” denial of themselves or of their tastes. Everybody has some sort of insecurity; this is natural of being human. But Gabriel didn’t know when to stop I guess that him and Julian Parker, from the second book in Brook Street series (Fortune Hunter), were the main characters who frustrated me the most in March’s books to this day. I try to be very understanding when I’m familiar with both sides of the story, but these two are a lost cause, haha!
As we just met Anthony for good in this book, I was very surprised to see how he can be a very optimistic person in the hardest times. I don’t agree with several of his attitudes during the story, but he is that kind of character that we simply love no matter what, haha!
Besides, if you look into each one’s personality, you will find that Anthony and Gabriel have a natural balance, an harmony in their qualities and defects. Also a trace of March’s couples: they always complete each other, in a way that both men will be better people after the coupling.
In narrative terms, the book is great. March manages to balance in a brilliant way her characters consciousness with the events around them and the time passages. It’s a fluid and quick read, as March’s language is not tiresome or the type that asks for a pause. She involves and makes her characters become best friends with her reader. It’s just like when someone is telling you a story over audios at Whatsapp and the person never finishes: this is the longing and the craving that March incites. You need to know how everything will end and the only way to do so is keep reading like crazy.
Another strong point of March’s is the love. She doesn’t describe that water sugared love that makes you bored. The love between her characters is that real kind of love, of the simple things on life, that is hard, disappoints without abandoning, that lasts even after many probations and still can awake luxury in the end of the day. Anthony and Gabriel’s romance wasn’t any different: the feeling was involving, strong and vigorous until the last page, in each touch, each look. It’s that kind of love that touches my heart and makes me believe that the world can be a better place. However, aren’t they fictional characters? Yes, they are. Nevertheless, the feeling is real and that’s all that matters 🙂
I also need to bow to Anthony and Gabriel’s sex scenes. March is a very explicit author and she can leave anyone burning up after reading her couple’s plays. What really impresses me about her is how she manages to be explicit without being vulgar. Even when her characters do it without a strong affective bond, you feel on your skin that that’s what the couple wants to do, no matter the reasons why. The act has sentiment. The reader feels the desire, the willingness. This is an element very hard to find in explicit romances. It’s not the sex for the sex; it’s the sex for the company.
Something more personal of my reading was that was nice to be able to foresee some things in the story. I already read all March’s books at least twice (AIWTD I must have read at least a dozen times since its release in 2013), so I can recognize some patterns and know which will be the biggest problem of the couple in the book. The great thing is that, even guessing more or less where the story was going, I was still surprised with the turn of events. Honestly? This is priceless ❤ I cried in some parts, desperate for a way to see Anthony and Gabriel together and in piece and my tears weren’t in vain. As my mom would say, everything in life can be arranged, haha!
I confess I have a little negative critique to do, haha! If Anthony and Max are that close as the series makes us believe they are, how can they still have difficulties to discuss their relationships behind closed doors?! In the beginning, Max didn’t even want to say Tristan’s name to Anthony! I thought all this caution a bit too much, considering their friendship level. I mean, you both know a secret from the other that could have both hanged and you’re still reticent? Oh, please. Is Max the reserved type? A lot, but he also already made clear as crystal that he is comfortable enough to discuss serious things with Anthony and Anthony did the same.
That’s it! Thank you for reading, it was a long post, haha! But I’m not sorry ❤ Are you already familiar with Ava March’s work?
Warning: this book is about a male homosexual romance in the 19th century. If you don’t like this gender, you should stop here 🙂
Hello, guys! Today I’ll review one of my favorite books all-time and one of the May Favorites, once I started my Instagram account before the blog (by the way, follow me :D). All In With The Duke is the first book of the Gambling on Love series and the last one, Viscount’s Wager, will be released on August 10th, so I’m going nuts, haha!
my precious baby ❤
The book tells us the story of Max, a duke who suffered a huge amorous deception and decided to never love again. Max is not the kind that falls often, but when he does, he dives in deeply and Johnathan, his former lover, left and blackmailed him. After such a disaster, Max shuts himself down for other relationships and only considers it again after his friend Rawling thousand nudges. All Rawling’s sweating wasn’t in vain and Max goes to Rubbicon, a brothel, that his friend assured him that could fulfill any wish Max had.
There, Max mets Tristan, a young man that has a giant debt with the owner of the place and a closet larger than Paris Hilton’s. Ok, just kidding, but he loves clothes ❤ Their first night together is explosive, even with just hands and mouths involved. Max gets addicted to Tristan’s body in the act and Tristan was shocked to realize that he wanted very badly to see Max again – and he usually couldn’t care less about who was on top of him.
Used to controlling everything beyond his reach, Max believes that he has power to control heart as well, so he makes an indecent proposition to Tristan that would change their lifes for good.
It’s one of the bests M/M historical romances I’ve ever read. Ava is the kind of writer who shares the characters’ love with the readers, you know? Their feelings are so true, so intense, so hot that you can feel it on your skin while reading, it’s pure magic. I loved Max since the first scene. I have a weak spot for powerful and confident men who know exactly what they want. He was so manly and unpredictable that it was love at first read, haha! Tristan also surprised me a lot: I thought he was going to be submissive and frail, but he has an unbreakable spirit – I dare to say, even stronger than Max’s. The plot is brilliant and almost gave me several heart attacks – thanks to the mutual stubbornness of the couple.
Another great point is the lovemaking. Their nights together were pure art, romance and with not even a hint of vulgarity. However, I have to say that this is a trademark of Ava’s: her characters always burn with such a passion that the reader feels like he belongs with then, right there. There were also some scenes that led me to tears – some of pain, some of joy, as I wasn’t seeing any way for them to be together with their differences. We also get to know Jack, one of the protagonists of the second book in the trilogy, which is pretty cool 🙂 I love this kind of book where there the stories are all happening at the same time, but you have a different perspective at each time – Grace Burrowes also does that greatly.
That’s it, guys! Thanks for reading 🙂 Did you know Ava March or read this book?
I guess that him and Julian Parker, from the second book in Brook Street series (
The Book Adventures of Annelise Lestrange 