Problems with email

My email service seems to be down.  Normally this wouldn't be much of a problem, but it is meaning that I can't see who the latest people are who are trying to join the Speak Its Name list.  There had been just one before I noticed that I hadn't got any emails for hours and realized there was a problem.  I'm sorry about this, but could I pass the job of welcoming people back to one of my other mods until I get my email back, please.

I don't know when that will be, but they're usually quite speedy when something like this happens.

Book Recommendation

There are some books which prove that the difference between a great book and a rubbish one is all in the skill of the author.  I mean, I've read a lot of contemporary m/m fiction where the plot goes 'boy a and boy b meet, they discover they are wildly compatible, they fall in love, they meet each other's families, who are all loving and accepting, they pick out curtains, they get to the stage of almost moving in with each other when a disaster of some sort happens.  However, they surmount it together and end up happily ever after.'

Normally I get to chapter three of these books and start getting impatient for something to happen.  I need someone to turn out to be a spy, or a werewolf, or to have a secret plan to dominate the world with watermelons, or I just get bored.  So I'm impressed and amazed to find a book where not very much happens, but it happens in such a wonderful, heartwarming, perky and mischievous way - with such chemistry between the leads, and such glorious banter - that I couldn't put it down.

The book is Z.A Maxfield's 'Crossing Borders' and I loved it.  The writing is strong and funny and the two leads are both instantly likable, though it's skater boy Tristan who fills the pages with a sort of high octane, irreverent joy in life which rubs off on the reader.  (It doesn't hurt that he's a redhead ;) )  What it lacks in villains with world-dominating superpowers, it makes up for in beautifully observed realism, and a full immersion in a life that it's a pleasure to live.



I should probably mention that the sex scenes are numerous, varied and very hot, shouldn't I?  But it's a book where the sex scenes are totally integrated and are not only hot but are also touching and even spiritual.  They're love scenes, not just sex scenes. 

The full cast of other characters - mothers, sisters, brothers and friends on both sides are all drawn beautifully and are fun to be around in themselves.  A bit like Jane Austen, what Z A Maxfield doesn't have in breadth of plot she makes up for by careful and minute (and sunny, enjoyable) observation.  It's going on the favourites shelf!

~*~*~*~

PS, I still have no email.  Fingers crossed that it comes back by tomorrow at least!

PPS, I've been on Last.fm for ten days now and they still haven't found anyone with similar musical taste to mine to be my 'neighbour'.  It's official, I'm a freak.  But who wouldn't love Gryphon with their medieval + renaissance folk influenced progressive rock music?