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Book Review: The Hardest Thing by James Lear

By Amazon, Books & Authors, Gay, ReviewsNo Comments
the-hardest-thing-james-lear-book-cover To ex-marine Dan Stagg killing is easy, but love is The Hardest Thing. Down on his luck, Dan accepts a simple protection job for big money. His job is to get ‘secretary’ Stirling McHahon out of New York City and then to await further instructions. No questions asked.

Stirling McHahon is young, blonde and is more of a hustler than secretary to Marshall, a powerful and crooked Property Developer.

The beginning of the book sets up the mystery with Dan and Stirling setting off on their out-of-town road trip. They start having rampant sex like rabbits, with everything described in a great amount of detail.

In the middle of the book there’s a number of sexual fantasy scenes involving the two main characters as well as various others. The expected masculine characters took the dominant role in the sex and I would have preferred more sexual versatility for all of the characters involved. The sex is the action and it has some completely unbelievable, yet enjoyable to read sex scenes.

Dan starts to fall in love with Stirling but knows that he can’t really trust him. Especially when he learns that Stirling McHahon is really an alias; he says that his real name is Jody Miller. Then Stirling/Jody/whatever-his-name-is gets snatched into a car.

Events build to a climax (no pun intended) at the end of the book, as the mystery is unravelled. Dan Stagg becomes the expected hero calling on his military training and physical strength to become like an action man. The ending is somewhat satisfying.

The large print formatting makes it easy to read and it is brilliantly written from Dan Stagg’s perspective. The simple storyline without the sex could have been told in about 50 pages, yet it is well paced. The Hardest Thing is surprisingly a page-turner and is one of the best gay erotic fiction story’s I’ve read in a long time.

The Hardest Thing is ‘A Dan Stagg Mystery’ indicating that it’s part of a series. If so, I can’t wait to read the next novel in the series.

Think of a gritty, gay, Fifty Shades of Grey – mostly minus the handcuffs and you’ve got The Hardest Thing. The Hardest Thing by James Lear is available to buy on Amazon or at your local book retailer.

Review soon,

Antony

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Sunday 25 August 2013

Up4aMeet? – An Evening of Naked, Gay, Laugh-Out-Loud Comedy

By Gay, Gigs & Shows, ReviewsNo Comments

Steve & I went to see Up4aMeet? this weekend. Here’s my review for The Gay UK:

Up4aMeet? – An Evening of Naked, Gay, Laugh-Out-Loud Comedy

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It’s #NakedAugust month here at The Gay UK, so I decided to go along and see Up4aMeet? the hilarious naked gay play.

Grant (played by the brilliant and sexy Chris Wills) finds it difficult to talk to gay men in reality. But on his favourite app ‘The Cock Shop’ he can be himself and even find out how many metres away his nearest gay man is. ‘The Cock Shop’ is described as a gay man’s sweet shop; with a few clicks a man can be delivered to your door.

Carlos (played by the well-endowed Benedict Garrett) is Grant’s Spanish & naturist flatmate who also is a big fan of ‘The Cockshop.’ For Carlos life is all about the sex. Carlos has a strict eversion to clothes and stripped every time he walked onto the stage. He was practically naked throughout the entire show.

Caroline (played by the fantastic Penny Tasker) is a broke Celebrity Agent who is Grant’s best friend and lives in the apartment downstairs. She represents a number of reality-TV celebrities including Stacey Granger (Big Brother’s Nikki Grahame) but is failing to find work for any of them.

In the apartment next door is old queen Julian (played by the suitable Michael Blore). Julian is obsessed with Dame Shirley Bassey. His obsession extends to playing Gold Finger constantly, having a cardboard cut-out of her and a toilet seat that he’s made for her as a gift. Julian decides he’s getting a flatmate and ends up with Scott (X-Factor’s Lloyd Daniels).

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(The Up4aMeet? Cast: Chris Wills, Penny Tasker, Lloyd Daniels, Nikki Grahame, Michael Blore & Benedict Garrett)

Up4aMeet? has nudity from the start with Grant being caught by Caroline taking a rude picture of himself for his ‘Cock Shop’ profile. Grant and Carlos accidently switch phones and the hilarity begins. The characters attempt to deal with their own problems throughout the more than two hour show, amusing the audience along the way.

The comedy that causes the audience’s incessant and side-splitting laughter is derived through gay stereotyping. Yet despite this stereotyping, the characters are believable and had a reasonable amount of depth – which is a tremendous credit to the writer.

All of the characters are a bit zany including Carlos who had a bit of a dodgy accent at times. But he made fun of it himself and managed to get a few chuckles from the audience. Caroline had some great, sharp one-liners and is a constant source of entertainment throughout. One particularly funny scene of Caroline’s that springs to mind involves an eye patch and a glory-hole.

Scott (Lloyd Daniels) was mostly eye candy and played a far too small role in the play. We don’t see Scott on stage until mid-way through and he barely has any dialogue. Scott (Lloyd Daniels) is the only male member of the cast who doesn’t get fully naked – sorry boys.

The cast’s acting was splendid and they all made good eye contact with the audience – despite the difficult layout of the venue.

The ending was dramatic, full of twists and turns with plenty of humour and a reminder that: you never really know whom you’re talking to online.

Up4aMeet? was even funnier than I had expected and I left with an aching belly from laughing-out-loud so often. If you want an evening of nudity coupled with gay humour – go and see Up4aMeet? you wont be disappointed. Up4aMeet is currently on a national tour, you can buy tickets here: http://www.up4ameetontour.com/.

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Blog soon,

Antony

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Sunday 4 August 2013

Book Review: The Wolf At His Door (Runes Trilogy Book 1) by Adrian Lilly

By Amazon, Books & Authors, ReviewsNo Comments
the-wolf-at-his-door-adrian-lilly-cover In The Wolf at His Door by Adrian Lilly, events are about to unfold in Alec’s life that will change it forever.

Alec is an out gay man and his twin brother Adam is straight; both are College Students and live at home with their parents – Ilene & Jason. Their older sister Lucy lives with her partner Rene nearby. Also close is their grandmother – Geraldine, a woman who has psychic ‘vibrations’ when something bad is going to happen.

With Geraldine’s vibrations getting worse, Alec’s friends Sam & Celeste introduce him to Jared. Then Sam & Celeste are brutally murdered.

The Prologue is overly dramatic, too descriptive and far too long. But once past that you discover Lilly‘s wonderfully engaging writers voice and his third person writing style that switches between characters perspectives. His writers voice and storytelling makes The Wolf at His Door an easy read that becomes highly addictive as the reader reads on.

The story is told in three parts. In part one Lilly introduces the characters, Alec’s friend’s are brutally murdered in the night at a cabin in the woods and people are going missing. Part two deals with the aftermath of the murders, the Police start their murder investigation, green-eyed evil Darius targets Alec and the investigation of the missing people is ongoing.

In the third and final part Alec & Co. start their own investigation as to what’s going on. This leads to an absolutely epic ending and sets out the direction for the 2nd book. The love interest for Alec adds to the story. Overall the storyline was outstandingly captivating, oozes brilliance and is well paced.

The description was perfectly measured throughout; although it did have a few Americanism’s that Lilly could have minimised or removed for more universal appeal. There were a few minor errors in dialogue formatting. But neither the Americanism’s or the errors in the dialogue formatting interrupted the flow of the storyline.

Throughout the story there is a good mix of scenes: slow ones that evoke an emotional response, investigation ones that ignite the mind with questions and face-paced action scenes that grip the reader.

By the end of The Wolf at His Door the reader has many answered questions; but some are left unanswered – which is what will make the trilogy enthralling.

The Wolf at His Door (The Runes Trilogy) by Adrian Lilly is essentially a werewolf, gay, mystery novel. An enjoyable read that makes the reader impatient for the release of the 2nd book in the trilogy.

The book is only available in eformat; but this makes it perfect to read on the bus, train or tube to work. The chapters are short meaning you could read several on the way to work. However you will find yourself reading on the way home as well – desperate to find out what happens next.

The Wolf at His Door (The Runes Trilogy) by Adrian Lilly is available to buy on Amazon and in my opinion is well worth the price.

Review soon,

Antony

Edited 28-02-14 01:45: Removed a sentence about Alec’s love interest being uncomfortable due to a potential familial relationship. This was a misunderstanding by me, as a result of a piece of description within the book.



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Monday 29 July 2013

Film Review: I Want Your Love (DVD)

By Amazon, Books & Authors, ReviewsNo Comments
i-want-your-love-dvd-cover
 I Want Your Love is collaborative film between gay porn studio NakedSword and independent filmmaker Travis Mathews.

Jesse is an aspiring artist who feels creatively blocked because of the state his finances and his massive amount of debt. After spending the last decade in San Francisco, Jessie decides to move back home to his parents in Ohio, the Midwest to free himself of the financial pressure.

I Want Your Love is the story of his last weekend in San Francisco with his friends, roommates and ex-lovers coming to his leaving party.
i-want-your-love-1 Sex plays an important role within this film and there are uncensored sex scenes from the start. Sex is used to show character development, intimacy, move the storyline along and the development of friendships: those that start with clear defined boundaries but turn into something more – entering that grey area between friend and lover.

Whatever type of man you’re into, you’ll find them in this film and I can guarantee that they’ll be in a graphic, all-exposed sex scene. Whether your taste be: bears, twinks, older, younger, white, black, asian, muscly, ordinary or just an all-round lover of all.

The film is extremely erotic and at times felt like watching a porn film. There’s even a threesome scene. The obligatory porn “I’m going to come!” scene followed by – well use your imagination, makes several appearances in this film. Arguably the storyline gets lost at times in the incredibly hot, but distracting sex.

i-want-you-love-2 Jesse is completely likeable, relatable and discovers that he’s searching for his true self. Over the course of the weekend he redefines what it means to him to be an artist, gay, and an adult. However the ending was a bit of an anti-climax.

It’s brilliantly directed and shot in a way that makes you feel like your sharing the characters most intimate moments. I Want Your Love is at times: funny, emotionally touching, romantic and sentimental as well as being abundantly horny throughout.

There were slow scenes of sparse dialogue that were followed by peaks of rampant high-paced sex. There was an annoying character – one who really grated, but luckily he wasn’t in the film much.

Mathews stated that he wanted to give an ‘honest and relevant’ representation of everyday gay life for men in San Francisco. I’m not from San Francisco so I can’t comment; but if that’s what it is really like – get me on a plane!

I Want Your Love is the perfect film to watch with your partner or other very close friends – not only thoroughly entertaining, it will give you plenty of ideas in the bedroom department. I Want Your Love [DVD] is available to pre-order/order on Amazon.

Review soon,

Antony

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I aim for posts on this blog to be informative, educational and entertaining. If you have found this post useful or enjoyable, please consider making a contribution by Paypal:


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Friday 26 July 2013
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