Lee Rowan

I skipped stories from authors that rate all their books. It's not the case with those that only rate antologies; I still don't like it but I can understand it like a recognition to their co-authors.


The Legend of Mountain Ash by Ruth Sims - 3 stars
Inner Truth by Alex Beecroft - 2 stars
Turnabout by Lee Rowan - 2,5 stars
Under the Shadow of Your Wings by Gillian Palmer. - 2 stars
Home Cooking by Brian Holiday - 4 stars
Mister Right by Rob Rosen - Skipped
Two Men: A Fugue by Sophia Deri-Bowen - 5 stars!!
Stripes by Nigel Puerasch - 4 stars
Morbidly Obese by Rick R. Reed - 2 stars
The Song Inside by Nexis Pas - 3,5 stars
Hitched by Michael Gouda - 1,5 stars
Cakewalk by Nathan Burgoine - 4 stars
Ships That Pass by Jamie Freeman - 2 stars
Work Experience by Bruin Fisher - 3 stars
Even Guys Cry by D.C. Juris - 2 stars
Touche by James Buchanan - 2 stars
Mallory's Gift by L-J Baker - 3 stars
The Uneven Chance by Charlie Cochrane - 3 stars
Honolulu Hula by Neil S. Plakcy - Skipped
Elephants in Her Tea by Julia Rios - 1,5 stars
Aim Higher by J.L Merrow - 3 stars
Ganymede by Lenore Black - 2,5 stars… (mais)

Ransom was really good, but I found some of the parts regarding the planning of their escape and the ship terminologies boring. However, I absolutely loved the relationship between Will and Davy. Davy has been in love with Will for a few years now, but didn't want to do anything to ruin their friendship. When they are captured, along with their Captain, for ransom, things start to get a little dicey. The kidnapper was a very sadistic man who threatened to geld Will to get Davy to voluntarily sleep with him. Because this book is set in the 1700's, Davy had to keep quiet about what was happening to him. If it came out, he could be kicked out of the Navy or worse, hung for sodomy. During a nightmare Davy was having, he and Will become intimate. This intimacy actually helps Davy endure the kidnapper's attentions and opens the door to one of the sweetest romances I have read in a long time. There was passion, love and tenderness between them and it was a refreshing change to the usual conflicts that potential couples face. This is a story that I definitely recommend.… (mais)

This is a nice love story. Of two men who found each other early in their lives, loved each other, chose different paths and come together again years later. Both military, both living with the scars of such of life. John rebuilt his life with school, studying psychology but living day to day without any joy. Kevin, forced to retired after a disastrous incident where soldiers and prisoners were killed. This is a nice long original fanfic like story with some short cuts (the Lord of the rings references become annoying fast) that I could overlook because I liked Kevin and John. No over the top cutsey stuff, just two men that find each other again and who love each other very much… (mais)

At the fourth book in the series there is always the risk that the story becomes “ordinary”; actually for some readers this can be even a good point, many readers like to be familiar with the heroes, like to know a lot about their life and love. I think Lee Rowan did a trick with this novel to satisfy both types of reader.

Home is the Sailor is again, and always, the story about Davy and Will, and as always, is the story about their forbidden love. This is a point Lee Rowan respected in all her novels about these men, and I think respected even according to the period in which this novel is set, beginning of the XIX century: very seldom Davy and Will allow their love to be freely expressed, and actually they are more the times they need to hide than when they can share a moment alone; strangely enough, the most daring places, like a riding carriage, is probably the place where they can be more safe, since no one would expect from them to do such things inside.

But to renew the plot, Lee Rowan decided to shift the setting from the sea to the mainland: and actually in doing so, she not only adds novelty to the intercourse between Davy and Will, she also shifts the balance and brings back the reader to the very beginning of this series, when Davy and Will first met. In the course of the series, Will gained “strength” on Davy for his harsher experience, and also since he self-proclaimed himself Will’s protector. But actually Davy’s social status is a step, or maybe two or three, above Will, and when they need to go back to Davy’s family home, that void they filled up with their love, open again. Davy has responsibility that Will has not; Will can allow himself to be an unmarried old sea wolf, but Davy probably not. With the shift in setting there is also a little change in the subtheme; more or less the previous three books were romance/adventure stories, this last one instead have also a little bit of mystery in it.

What I probably liked best, of this novel but also of all the series, is that the author allows to her heroes to be men in love, and so there is the romance, without taking decisions that are not realistic; even the end of this novel (probably not the end of Davy and Will’s adventures) is a mix of happiness and bittersweet feeling: true, Davy and Will will find a way to be together, but actually it’s not a totally pink perspective; the need of secrecy still lingers and Davy and Will have yet another little bickering right at the last page, so that the reader is enticed to search for a following story to know if they will find an agreement.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/0982826702/?tag=elimyrevandra-20… (mais)