Because of the Brave by Laura Baumbach, Z.A. Maxfield, & Josh Lanyon

TITLE: Because of the Brave
AUTHOR: Laura Baumbach, Z.A. Maxfield, Josh Lanyon
PUBLISHER: Aspen Mountain Press
LENGTH: Anthology (roughly 48k)
GENRE: Gay erotic romance
COST: $7.00

A trio of erotic stories about gay military men.

Purchase of the Because of the Brave through the Aspen Mountain Press website through September 11, 2009, will donate 15% toward the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network, a national organization dedicated to helping military personnel impacted by the “don’t ask, don’t tell, don’t pursue” policy signed into law in 1993. It’s a great charity, and the anthology more than worth it, but I’m going to go on the record and say I just wish the publisher paid more attention to their editing for works that will receive this kind of attention. To be frank, I don’t expect much from Aspen Mountain releases. Their editing is inconsistent at best, and I suspect that’s because the authors themselves vary in the strength of their technical abilities. But it’s frustrating to read something that’s clearly hoped to have strong sales and find it riddled with so many easy mistakes. Even Lanyon’s story suffers (how on earth does canon get mistaken for cannon in a military story?), and as much as I’d urge people to buy this, I do it with the caveat that it will probably really bother those readers who are sensitive to technical mistakes.

The anthology starts with out with Laura Baumbach’s “Designated Target.” Carson Crosby is spending Thanksgiving working at a local food bank. He is alone in the world after the death of his brother two months earlier. He spies a big, burly guy who is obviously military hanging around, and after a very brief conversation with him, flees when the way the man says his name just like his dead brother used to. The man helps out with an encounter with an abusive guy outside the church, and they stick together, getting to know each other and indulging their attraction. In reference to the editorial issues I mentioned, Baumbach’s story has it the worst (His imagination supplied a vivid reason for the respectable fabric bugle made me giggle hysterically because I’m fairly sure that g and l in bugle should be transposed), and thus, makes it harder than it should be to get through the novella. The story is saved by Baumbach’s passion and affecting characters. The chemistry between Carson and China (the military guy) leaps off the page, as does Carson’s grief. I found myself drawn to China, much like Carson is, and wish I could have had even more of him.

Next comes “Jumping Off Places” by Z.A. Maxfield. Peter Hsu has returned to the small town where he grew up to be there when his terminally ill mother dies. There, he meets Robin, the Jamaican CNA taking care of her at the hospice. Robin is out and proud of it, while Peter has hid his sexuality from everyone, including his mother. He’s been trying to live up to the hero image of his dead cop father, and finds himself failing at every turn. Dealing with the impending death of his mother is yet another failure in his eyes. This was the story in the anthology that got to me the most, and the one I found myself still thinking about long after it was over. There are a lot of different emotions going on in this. While there is definitely a romance going on between Peter and Robin, it is cloaked in layers and layers of issues, not the least of which is how these two very different men deal with the loss of a woman who means the world to both of them. The fact that Peter is in the military is miniscule in the face of this, as is the issue of their races (Peter is half-Chinese and has been dealing with that discrimination his entire life, while Robin is black). Neither of these really get explored, but I didn’t mind. I was too invested in all the other feelings that were going on. There’s the guilt, and the grief, and Peter’s inability to come out or let anybody in. I had thought I was affected by Carson’s grief in the first story, but that got eclipsed by how much I related and felt for Peter. He was the heart of this compassionate story.

Rounding out the anthology is “Until We Meet Once More” by Josh Lanyon. Army Ranger Captain Vic Black has a new assignment – to rescue a surviving SEAL in the middle of Afghanistan. He’s even more determined when he learns that it’s Sean Kennedy, the lover from the Naval Academy that he left behind. Lanyon’s story is drastically different from its predecessors, focused far more on the taut action of the moment, interspersed with emotionally taut flashbacks. It’s also considerably shorter, very concise in its presentation. While it’s the most technically proficient of the three, with elegant, crisp world-building that immerses the reader into the razor edge environment of the Middle East, it was also the story that engaged me the least emotionally. I was caught up in the action, but the flashbacks weren’t quite enough to create the fervency it felt necessary to appreciate the wallop of an ending. I’m not sure if making it longer would have helped, because then it would have been a different story rather than the whirlwind action story it was. It works well on that level. It just didn’t succeed as well as a romance for me.

Readability	7/10 – I just can’t get past the weak editing to better appreciate these
Romance	7/10 – The romance is strongest in the first two stories
Characterization	7/10 – More uneven than I would have expected from these authors
Entertainment value	7/10 – Definitely recommendable
World building	7/10 – Lanyon’s is by far the strongest in this area
TOTAL:	35/50

Mexican Heat by Laura Baumbach & Josh Lanyon

TITLE: Mexican Heat
AUTHOR: Laura Baumbach & Josh Lanyon
PUBLISHER: Samhain Publishing
LENGTH: Novel (roughly 78k)
GENRE: Gay erotic romantic suspense
COST: $5.50

Detective Gabriel Sandalini has been deep undercover in the Botelli crime family for eighteen months, all in hopes of orchestrating the biggest drug bust in history when the Botelli family joins with the Sanchez family. When he discovers an amazing one-night stand is actually Miguel Ortega, the Sanchez’s second-in-command, he starts panicking about blowing it. The merging of the families starts to twist in directions he didn’t expect, and Ortega turns out to be the one person he can rely on…

NOTE: This is a review originally written for Uniquely Pleasurable.

If there is one thing Mexican Heat has, it’s atmosphere. Rich, warm details spring forth from the very first paragraph, with no sense left untouched. The authors immerse the reader in the seedy underbelly of Italian and Mexican drug lords, refusing even a gasp for breath until that’s all the reader knows. The same extends to the colorful cast of personalities. While many of the secondary characters seem straight out of a multiple other mobster stories, they do so with style and brilliance. They might be familiar archetypes, but that makes them no less entertaining.

Just as entertaining are the two leads. Gabriel Sandalini is a self-confessed adrenaline junkie, with a mile-wide independent streak and drive to match. In many ways, Miguel Ortega is the antithesis – urbane, patient, with a silver tongue and experience to curb his more spontaneous impulses. There’s a spark whenever these two get into a room together. Even though it takes a while for anything physical to happen between them once they discover who the other is, the actual culmination is secondary to the tension brewed in the interim. Put them together, and the scene seethes. Their chemistry is as passionate as either culture could ever hope to be, and it’s this red-hot fire that carries the bulk of the book.

I had a little bit of difficulty getting into the story, though. The book is divided into two parts, and the first seems far more overwritten than the latter. Lines like, They were playing his song all right, and the name of that tune was danger., seem heavyhanded and a tad cheesy. There’s a lot of that in the beginning, and it made for some bumpy reading until it smoothed out. It’s not helped that editorially, the first half isn’t nearly as clean as the latter (there’s an instance where Gabriel gets called by his real name by the mobster daughter instead of by the name she knows him as [Giovanni], for example). I did find it curious that the lavish prose of the first half comes in Gabriel’s perspective, while the cleaner, smoother prose of the second comes in Ortega’s. It felt like an odd choice, and I’m not sure if the inversion was deliberate or not. It might be meant to mirror Gabriel’s more dynamic approach to life and Ortega’s control, but again, I’m not convinced. It was stark enough for me to notice, though.

What sucks a reader in, then, is the heat between the two leads and the non-stop, unrelenting action that keeps the story barreling forward. I have to admit the suspense didn’t work for me as well; I saw one of the biggest plot twists coming from as early as the second chapter. But reading it as action-oriented hot romance? Oh yeah. Delivers in spades. Even when it switches gears in the second half of the book, its breakneck pace keeps the heroes’ relationship devastatingly intoxicating. That’s the true appeal of the book for me.

Readability	8/10 – The second part is much easier to read, and cleaner, than the first part; sometimes, the overwriting of the first bogged me down
Hero #1	7/10 – Likeable and realistic, but I wondered more than once just how bright he really was, and if that made it viable for him to be doing this kind of work
Hero #2	7/10 – Appropriately enigmatic, but sometimes his over-the-top dialogue – while in character – felt too much Spanish lothario
Entertainment value	8/10 – Though the suspense wasn’t as effective since I saw quite a bit coming from the beginning, the action and constant forward motion of the story, as well as the hot chemistry between the two, more than compensated.
World building	9/10 – Vivid and rich with detail
TOTAL:	39/50