Outlaw Reviews

Almost like being in love by Steve Kluger – review

18 Oct 2008 at 21:59

Ann Somerville

Rating: 10/10 Title: Almost like being in love
Author: Steve Kluger
Genre: Comedy romance
URL: Amazon
Price: US $13.95
Other Information/warnings: none
Summary [from the publisher]:
A high school jock and nerd fall in love senior year, only to part after an amazing summer of discovery to attend their respective colleges. They keep in touch at first, but then slowly drift apart.Flash forward twenty years.

Travis and Craig both have great lives, careers, and loves. But something is missing …. Travis is the first to figure it out. He’s still in love with Craig, and come what may, he’s going after the boy who captured his heart, even if it means forsaking his job, making a fool of himself, and entering the great unknown. Told in narrative, letters, checklists, and more, this is the must-read novel for anyone who’s wondered what ever happened to that first great love.

My review:

The Runaway by Jaime Samms – review

18 Oct 2008 at 18:52

Paul G. Bens, Jr

Rating: 8/10

Title: The Runaway
Author: Jaime Samms
Genre: M/M Romance
URL: Freya’s Bower
Price: US$1.49
Warnings: None
Summary [from publisher]: After his father’s death, Miles returns to the farm he ran from ten years ago. When his past returns to haunt him, he has to decide if the memories will fence him in, or if he’s ready to free himself from remembered pain and return home.

My Review:

Downtime by Tamara Allen – review

18 Oct 2008 at 18:50

Ann Somerville

Rating: 8/10 Title: Downtime
Author: Tamara Allen (originally as James Allen)
Genre: Time travelling mystery
URL: Dreamspinner Press [reissue - second edition]
Price: US $6.99

Other Information/warnings: graphic m/m, violence
Summary [from the publisher]:
FBI Agent Morgan Nash is on assignment in London when his case goes awry and he finds himself moments away from a bullet through the heart. But fate has other plans: Morgan gets knocked out pursuing a suspect… and wakes up in 1888.
While cataloging ancient manuscripts at the British Museum, Ezra Glacenbie accidentally pulls Morgan out of the twenty-first century—an impromptu vacation that may become permanent for Morgan if they can’t locate the spellbook Ezra used. Further hampering Morgan’s quest to get home is the irresistible temptation to investigate history’s most notorious serial killer: Jack the Ripper. But in repressive Victorian London, it’s the unexpected romance blossoming between Morgan and Ezra that becomes the most dangerous complication of all.

[PLEASE NOTE THIS REVIEW REFERS TO THE ORIGINAL TORQUERE EDITION OF THIS BOOK]

My review:

Letters to Montgomery Clift by Noel Alumit – review

13 Oct 2008 at 14:45

Paul G. Bens, Jr

Rating: 9/10

Title: Letters to Montgomery Clift
Author: Noel Alumit
Genre: Literary Fiction
URL: Amazon.com
Price: US$12.55
Warnings: Explicit m/m sex, violence.
Summary [from publisher]: “Praying is not enough–better put it in writing!’ Bong Bong Luwad is living with his selfish Auntie Yuna in L.A., far from his Philippine village, the Marcos regime, and his mother who helped him escape. Bong Bong spends his nights watching old movies on TV, while Auntie Yuna writes pleading letters to saints and dead relatives. One night on the late-late movie, Bong Bong finds his own saint: Montgomery Clift, playing a soldier who helps a lost boy find his mother. Can Monty do the same for him? He gets out a pencil and paper and thus begins a series of extraordinary events that carry him from boyhood to adolescence, through sexual awakening, madness, and finally back to a place where he can begin his life again. Letters to Montgomery Clift is a novel of endurance and hope. It is a tale of growing up, coming out, and going home.

My Review:

Fixer Chao by Han Ong – review

06 Oct 2008 at 07:42

Paul G. Bens, Jr

Rating: 9/10 Title: Fixer Chao
Author: Han Ong
Genre: Satire, dark humor
URL: Amazon.com
Price: US$15.00
Other Information/Warnings: violence, dark humor, murder
Summary (from the publisher): William Paulinha, a Filipino street hustler, is in the early days of self-imposed reform when he meets Schem C., a failed writer ostracized by New York City’s literati. Shem recruits Paulinha to retaliate against the community that spurned him, and under Shem’s guidance, Paulinha becomes Master Chao, a revered practitioner of Feng Shui–the Chinese art of creating a harmonious environment that promises its adherents peace and prosperity. As this latter-day confidence man cuts a swath through upper-crust society, his biting observations form a comic picaresque of class resentment and revenge.

My Review:

Practical Purposes by Yeva Weist – review

03 Oct 2008 at 20:06

Ann Somerville

Rating: 6.5/10
Title: Practical Purposes
Author: Yeva Weist
Genre: Black comedy
URL: Once upon a bookstore
Price: US $3.50
Other Information/warnings: violence, language, homophobic attitudes

Summary [from the publisher]:
What should a white Irish Catholic boy wear to his black, gay lover’s family funeral?
A gun, if he’s smart.
Good old boys and the dog from hell await Zachary O’Boyle when he arrives in 1977 Salem, Texas, hoping to show his support after his boyfriend James’s aunt dies. By the time he gets there, James is already missing, and the only locals willing to help find him are no match for Ole “King” Cole’s plan to keep James in the closet where all family skeletons belong.
Practical Purposes is a bitingly funny look at the personal truths behind prejudice, homophobia and other precious family memories.

My review: