Book Hooks: Wild About That Thing - #MFRWHooks #blues #menage #MFRWAuthor

I haven’t done a Book Hooks post in a while, but since I had Wednesday free this week, I thought I’d join in the fun.

Here’s a snippet from my ménage erotic romance Wild About That Thing. Single mom Ruby Jones is one of my favorite characters, a woman with a dream.

When you’re finished with my Book Hook, I hope you’ll take the time to visit some of the other authors participating in today’s blog hop. You’ll find the links at the end of this post.

Blurb

There's more than one way to beat the blues.

Two things are important to Ruby Jones - her teenage son and her struggling club, the Crossroads Blues Bar. Her love life comes in a distant third, despite the efforts of Zeke Chambers to convince her otherwise. Zeke's the lead singer in her house band, a devoted friend, and an occasional lover. He can drive her wild with desire, but can't get her to make a commitment. Deserted by her cheating ex-husband, Ruby's determined she's going to make it on her own. She's hot-blooded like her bluesman daddy - happy to satisfy her physical cravings, but not about to let any man into her heart.

The stranger who takes the stage on the Crossroads open mike night upsets the delicate balance in Ruby's world. Remy Saint-Michel inspires irrational, irresistible lust as well as inexplicable sympathy. Overwhelmed, confused, guilty and worried about her prized independence, Ruby decides that the only way to deal with her two lovers is to push them both away. Zeke and Remy, though, have other ideas.

The Hook

Ruby could feel it in her bones. It was going to be a good night. Only ten thirty, but most of the tables clustered ‘round the stage were full. Lori had already lugged two extra cases of Heineken—tonight’s beer special—up from the basement, and from the looks of the empties accumulating in front the customers, they were going fast. The bartender caught Ruby’s eye and gave her a thumbs up. Everything under control.

Up front, the Night Travellers hit a dark groove, wailing through Born Under a Bad Sign. Zeke’s fingers flew over the strings, improvising a high riff, while Jojo’s bass kept the song grounded. “If it wasn’t for bad luck, I’d have no luck at all,” Zeke growled, torturing his guitar to match the pain in his voice. Damn, but the man sounded black, despite the mop of straw-coloured hair he kept pushing out of his eyes. Born in Mississippi, he must’ve soaked up blues in the water and the air. Certainly he could play with the best. Ruby was lucky to have him and his band, given the pittance she could afford to pay them.

As if he sensed her attention, Zeke picked her out of the shadows at the back of the club. She felt the warmth of the smile he beamed to her, a smile totally at odds with the desperate mood of the song. You know why Zeke plays here, her inner critic commented. You’re just taking advantage of him.

He gets what he wants, she argued with the internal voice that sounded so very much like her mother’s. I treat him fine. Of course, she got as much out of their relationship as he did. Zeke was a strong man with powerful desires. He could set her on fire. It wasn’t her fault that he was so sentimental. You wouldn’t expect it from a rough and tumble guy like Zeke Chambers—ten years a New York cabbie, a guy who’d seen every horror the city could dish out.

Her phone vibrated in her jeans pocket, interrupting her train of thought.

“Hey, hon. What’s up? You should be in bed.”

“I’m going, Mama. I just want to finish this chapter…”

“Isaiah Jones, it’s nearly eleven and tomorrow’s a school night! You shut your light off right now!”

“Okay, okay, Mama! But don’t forget about your meeting tomorrow with Ms Rodriguez.”

“Oh, right.” Ruby sighed. Isaiah’s grades were good but he was so small that he tended to get bullied. She needed to put a stop to that, somehow. “Thanks, hon. Three thirty, right?”

“Uh huh.”

“I’ll be there, don’t worry. Then we’ll walk back home together. Maybe stop for a banana split.”

“Yum!”

“But only if you go to bed right now, you understand? I don’t want to have to come upstairs and make you!”

“Of course. Good night, Mama.”

“’Night, sweetie. I’ll see you tomorrow afternoon.” Ruby fought against the wave of guilt that threatened to swamp her. Sure, it would be better if she could awaken with her son, make him breakfast and see him off to school like a “normal” mom. But the club kept her up until three a.m. most nights.

Isaiah understood. She’d tried staying up until after he’d left, but he had seen how wiped out that made her. He insisted she needed her sleep. At thirteen, he didn’t have any problem dressing and feeding himself—heck, he’d been doing it for the past two years, ever since she’d opened the Crossroads Blues Bar. He knew the club was her dream—the dream that had kept her alive after his bastard father took off with his leggy hygienist. 

Don't forget to visit the other authors in today's hop! 

Review Tuesday: Raincheck by Sarah Madison (#reviewtuesday #mm #pnr @SarahMadisonFic)

Raincheck by Sarah Madison

Dreamspinner Press, 2011

Rodney has lived in Manhattan for decades, but he has never visited the Metropolitan Museum. He’s never browsed in one of the city’s famed bookstores, or enjoyed an espresso in a Greenwich Village café, or strolled through Central Park on a spring afternoon. He exists on the fringes of society, observing people and events, collecting odds and ends that attract him, making sardonic comments that no one hears.

Although Rodney yearns for a richer life, he accepts his limits. After all, there’s not much he can do about them. Rodney is a gargoyle, destined to spend each day on his base atop a nineteen twenties building as a hunk of inanimate stone. The setting sun sets him free to swoop between the skyscrapers on powerful wings and grab whatever scraps he can salvage of the city’s complexity and beauty. At dawn he hurries back to his perch, before he turns to dust.

Then one night a beautiful, sad young man climbs to the rooftop that is Rodney’s domain. Unlike other humans, David can hear Rodney’s voice. The two strike up an odd friendship, bonding in their mutual love of books and their frustration with the greed that is destroying New York’s past. Rodney hides in the shadows, afraid that a glimpse of his hulking body, leathery wings and vicious claws will drive his companion away. When David’s life is threatened, however, Rodney has no choice but to reveal his true nature.

I enjoyed this novella, the first gargoyle paranormal erotic romance I’ve encountered. If there are conventions to this sub-genre, I’m not aware of them. Hence I didn’t know what to expect (though of course I knew Rodney and David would eventually become lovers). The ending (which I’ll keep under my hat!) took me by surprise, an experience that I welcome.

Ms. Madison successfully brings Rodney to life (no pun intended), showing the reader his pain and his resignation. He’s such a sweet guy, you can’t help but love him. David is less fully fleshed out, but that is perhaps to be expected in a relatively short tale (65 pages) told from a single point of view.

Although the book does include a bit of explicit sex, it’s pretty mild compared to many of the MM books I read—not to mention the ones I write! There’s no coyness, however. I particularly liked the way the author describes Rodney’s physical reactions and the damage they do to David’s apartment. After all, human dwellings weren’t designed for seven foot tall creatures with wings!

A bit more local color would have enriched the texture of the story. I don’t think Ms. Madison is all that familiar with New York City. Aside from a mention of the Metropolitan Museum, there’s nothing specific to Manhattan in the tale, and that, in my opinion, weakens the book’s effect. New York is one of the few places in the US where it would be plausible to find a gargoyle, but to be honest, Raincheck could have been set anywhere.

This is a relatively minor criticism, from a reader who perhaps cares more than most about setting. Overall, Raincheck is a quick, satisfying, romantic read with a distinctly different premise and an appealing hero.