14 Reasons Why It’s Not Okay to Out Someone as Trans – A Public Service Announcement From Your Friendly, Neighborhood Trans Person

“Reblogged from AmericanTransMan”

"Recently, a well-meaning friend of mine disclosed my trans status to a friend of his, someone I hadn’t known previously. I don’t know that I ever would have found out that he had done so if his friend hadn’t slipped up and referred to me as “she” in front of a group of people.

He quickly corrected himself and moved on with whatever he had been saying, but for me, the damage had been done.

That one little pronoun ripped away my confidence and left me stunned and confused. Although it still happens once in a while, being seen as female has been a rare occurrence for me over the past six months, so I asked myself why this person whom I had just met would confuse me with a woman? Was it obvious that I was trans? Was I kidding myself, walking around in the world thinking that I no longer appeared female to most people?"

http://americantransman.com/2012/04/18/14-reasons-why-its-not-okay-to-out-someone-as-trans-a-public-service-announcement-from-your-friendly-neighborhood-trans-person/

Book Review: Crashing Into You by B.D. Rowe

"Bookish college sophomore Sydney Baker wants Evan Taylor with every ounce of her being. The hottest stud on campus, Evan is six foot four, ripped, stacked with muscles. He's even easy to talk to. 

There's just one problem: he's her roommate Melanie's boyfriend. 

But when Melanie tragically dies after a night of wild partying, Sydney and Evan turn to each other in a time of intense grief. And it doesn't take long for their close friendship to blossom into something more. 

Unfortunately for Sydney, secrets from the past soon put her relationship with Evan to the test. Especially when a sexy blonde freshman makes her way into Evan's life, and tries to rip away everything Sydney holds close to her heart."

The above is the blurb I read that made me want to read this book.  Unfortunately, it's misleading.  Sydney and Evan don't just turn to each other after Melanie dies, they were already friends.  Their close friendship doesn't just blossom into something more, Sydney was already obsessing over Evan before Melanie died.

Unlike other reviewers, I actually disliked Sydney more than I disliked Evan.  Evan went through his grieving period and wasn't going to feel guilty over his feelings for Sydney just because Melanie died.  Sydney, on the other hand, couldn't seem to let go.  The fact that she has an issue with binge drinking and drinking and driving makes her worse.  She's completely all over her friends, including Evan, about drinking a single drop of alcohol.  But she also acts like it doesn't bother her at the same time.

The whole thing with Sydney's issue with drinking was off the charts and sometimes not even realistic.  Anybody who feels THAT strongly about drinking and partying is NOT going to be peer-pressured into going to a party and drinking if they don't want to go.

And then there's this whacko climax and then it ends on a CLIFFHANGER.

The book is a total mess and should have ended after a longer period of time for Sydney and Evan to grow to love each other.  The mysterious blonde isn't a bad story twist.  How Sydney reacts to her when she realizes who she is, is like, Psycho Sidney.  I think it could have been wound into the story with more flair and less throwing it in our face.

I also noticed a lot of reviewers have presumed the author is a FEMALE.  However, before I actually go and look up the author to find out, I'm banking on the author being a MAN.  I found myself thinking, "a man wrote this" through the entire read and I can't figure out exactly why but I KNOW B.D. Rowe is a MAN.

Overall though, I give it three stars and rate it as a good book.  Especially for a debut book.  I have to give respect to anyone who writes and publishes a book.  If there is a sequel to the book, and I hope there is, I hope it's more fine tuned than this one.  I'd be curious to see where Evan and Sydney wind up.

I received an ARC from NetGalley in return for an honest review.

Book Review: "Hard To Handle" by Jessica Lemmon

ONCE BURNED
Sadie Howard never dates a guy more than once-but Fate has other plans for her when it comes to Aiden Downey, the one that got away. Aiden loved her, left her, and broke her heart. Yet suddenly she's bumping into him at every turn, driven to distraction by his wicked grin and rock-hard body. Now she can't resist finishing what they started-as long as she doesn't let herself fall in love . . .

TWICE AS TEMPTING
Aiden Downey threw away the best thing he ever had when he let Sadie go, and now he's determined to win back the woman he's always wanted. Sadie agrees to let him into her life-and her bed-as long as there are no strings attached. But Aiden's not about to make the same mistake again. Can he convince her to take a second chance on a once-in-a-lifetime love?

Sadie's best friend, Crickitt, is marrying Aiden's cousin, Shane, and it's at their wedding where we start off in this book.  With Crickitt and Shane gone, off to their honeymoon, we find a plastered Sadie and a well buzzed Aiden staying overnight at the reception site.  It's here where Aiden takes Sadie off to her room and puts her to bed where we find out through their thoughts what happened to make Sadie despise Aiden.  They dated a year prior and Aiden, when his mother went to a holistic cancer center in Oregon, broke it off with Sadie and went to be with his mother, hoping she'd beat the cancer.

A couple of month's later, we find Sadie working her butt off as a sales rep for a motorcycle parts company and she's off to land her biggest potential client before the owner hires another Parts Manager.  To Sadie's shock and chagrin, the owner has hired Aiden for the job.  With Aiden feeling guilty and still in love with Sadie, he gives her the account which wins her a big bonus at work and the number one sales position.

Now she sees him daily at the shop as she changes over the inventory, the displays and sells off the older, lesser quality competition products.  At this point, just about anyone can guess where THAT'S going to go.

Aiden is a wonderful hero in this book.  He's changed a lot after his mother's death.  He has goals and purpose and he knows what he wants his future to be.  And he wants Sadie to be a part of that future.  For a big, badass biker dude, he's a sensitive guy.  And of course, he's a little bit stubborn too because, well, he's a man.  "Nuff said.

On the other hand, Sadie is whiny and kind of a bitch when it comes to how she treats Aiden.  I mean, if I got this right, Sadie and Aiden had THREE DATES.  Now maybe there's a lot more to their previous relationship in the novella that precedes this book but by all accounts, it was THREE DATES.  I got the impression that they both fell in love with each other, most likely at first sight the first time around, and maybe that's why Sadie STILL won't let it go.  But she's also completely not understanding at all as to why Aiden broke if off.  The man's mother was dying of cancer and he chose to go be with her.  So, from this point of view, Sadie really appears to be the self-absorbed one of the two.

I had no trouble reading the book, it was a page turner.  But I got all sorts of annoyed at the back and forth that led to nowhere.  But I liked the end and the epilogue.  It just felt like there was a middle missing. A missing piece. There's all the back and forth and then the ending and epilogue comes real fast.

One of the things in the book that nagged at me was Sadie's fear of riding on a motorcycle.  Her backstory obviously includes a family and friends who ride. She has extensive knowledge of cycles, riding and the parts she sells.  So there's this story that carries through the book of this fear because her dad had an accident and Aiden had an accident.  As far as I can tell, nobody she knows has died in a motorcycle accident.  It seems irrational.  At one point, I thought the turning point (the missing piece) would be Aiden has another accident and Sadie finally sees that she really cannot live without Aiden.  After finishing the book, I kept asking myself if Jessica Lemmon may have even written that in and for some reason, took it out.

Overall, it's a good book.  Readers of romance novels will enjoy it, especially if they enjoy reading romances that go "off formula."  That being said, I'm extremely interested to read the first book which is about Crickitt and Shane and the novella which gives us the whole backstory on Sadie and Aiden.

I received a copy of this book from NetGalley in return for an honest review.

Book Review of "Second Chance" by David Perry

"Pharmacist Alex Benedict’s career and personal life are collapsing around him. Battling his own exhaustion, a powerful physician, and an unforgiving boss, he fights to uncover the reason behind a series of mysterious deaths in his hospital while preparing for a life-altering crisis. The suicide of a colleague thrusts Benedict into a hunt for clues leading to the ultimate, improbable answer. In the end, Benedict discovers the unthinkable, and in a climactic, unforgettable scene must make an agonizing, life-defining choice that will haunt him forever."

Alex Benedict works as the lead pharmacist in a hospital that's primed for a takeover.  By accident during the code of a cancer patient, Alex discovers a suspicious IV bag.  The IV bag has been laced with a mysterious ingredient and turns out to responsible for at least two other deaths in the hospital.  Alex's wife is also fighting an ovarian cancer battle of her own and decides to stop treatment once and for all, which will speed up her transition to her death.  Alex's colleague, working under duress, commits suicide and leaves Alex a mysterious CD loaded with a scavenger hunt of sorts.  It is then up to Alex to solve the riddles, find the pieces of a recipe that cures people of all sickness and find the last dose of a successful preparation of that recipe so that he can save his wife's life.

At first, I thought a three-part book with forty chapters was going to be ultra long, dragging in spots, and hard to read.  It was the exact opposite. This book moved really fast!  It was fast-paced and kept me awake all night long.  The medical and pharmaceutical knowledge in the book was top notch.  I expected it to be "dumbed down" but as a nurse, I could easily tell it wasn't.  David Perry does a great job tho at describing what medicines were for and what they could do.  There are some fake medications in the book as well but it was creative to say the least.

The examination and speculation of what a discovery of a cure for all human ailments would do to the world's population is astounding without taking sides and really makes the reader think while being entertained by an excellent book.

We do meet another character named Angel in the book.  The introduction of Angel gave me a huge aforethought to a possible ending of the book and I was right.  But, you'll have to read for yourself to see if you can figure it out and to find out if you're right.

I was provided an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Book Review: The Trial of Dr. Kate by Michael Glasscock III

This is the second book of a four part series set in Round Rock, TN.  While set in the same town with some of the characters from the first book, Little Joe, it is now some years later.  Dr. Kate Marlow is going on trial for murdering her best friend, Lillian.  She insists that she didn't do it but has no recollection of the day her friend died because she blacked out.

Seeing the news of the trial on the AP teletype, expat of Round Rock, Shenandoah Coleman, now working as a reporter for a Memphis newspaper, decides to return home to Round Rock to cover the trial and after seeing her old friend Kate, decides to help Dr. Kate by interviewing everybody who knew her to find character witnesses for her.

Along the way, Shenandoah meets up with her old friends and her old foes, she meets new people along the way and makes new friends as well.  Including, Bobby, a handsome mechanic who happens to work for Lillian's husband, Army, and they develop a romantic relationship with each other. The fact that Bobby and Army are moonshine runners isn't exactly favorable to Shenandoah but she seems to understand that the activity goes along with all of the other unfavorable activities of the time.

The book covers just about every topic associated with the deep South in the early 50's including racism, sexism, classism, corrupt politics, etc.  There is a trial and we get a good picture of just how differently the court systems worked back then.  Michael Glasscock made it all very real.

A verdict is rendered.  What really happened that day comes to light.  There's even an epilogue that details what happened to each of the characters years later.

What I liked about the book was how Shenandoah held her head up high in the faces of those who once looked at her as poor white trash and still see her as that even though she's been a WASP pilot in WW2, college educated and doing well for herself.  I also liked how she kept her promise to Dr. Kate and visited her everyday to see how she was doing and to keep her up to date on how her interviews were progressing.

We also get to see the good things too.  Like Southern hospitality and how the town protects each other (this is a bad thing too when it turns into people covering for each other).  The book is written really well, it's not hard to follow and you can get caught up in it quickly.

What I didn't like was how the trial ended and the reaction to the verdict just seemed to fall flat.  I'd expect, in this particular case, that ANY verdict would spark outrage and outcry.  But it was just nothing.  Even finding out what really happened was just flat.  Then out of what seems like nowhere, we are given this shocker of an ending with Bobby, whom Shenandoah has fallen in love with and wants to be with forever.  Frankly, I *hated* how Bobby's ending was written.  It seemed incredibly unnecessary and I still don't understand why Glasscock decided to go in the direction he did what him.

I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review of the book.  Honesty, I dropped it to 4 stars because of that ending.  In fact, I can't think of another book ending that I disliked more.  Overall, it's a good book and a good read.  I plan to read the next two books in the series.

Book Review of "Safe In His Arms" by Renee Rose

Safe In His Arms is a steaming hot novella that packs a lot of punch into what amounts to just over 100 or so pages.

Becca meets Zac over the weekend of her sister's wedding and she winds up having a weekend fling with someone she believes is a Marine.  After that steamy weekend, she finds out that Zac went off to war and was killed.  Shortly after, she finds out she's pregnant.

Fast forward seven years and we find Becca coming home from work to find her son's nanny in mortal combat with a man who is the man she believes died seven years before.

Becca finds out most of the truth, that Zac is a Black Ops agent, which means he doesn't actually exist anywhere.  But he has been watching over Becca and their son for all of these years.  Now he's back because he believes Becca and their son to be in danger.  It becomes difficult quickly for Zac to stay away from Becca and their son.  On the flip side, Becca and Zac's short-lived Dom/sub weekend are not forgotten and Becca's desires to have her Dominant man back in her life set off a lot of fires.

Overall, it's a really good little book.  If you don't mind reading sexual scenes containing BDSM, you'll probably enjoy the book.  The love story is good and it makes sense.  The decisions that Zac has to make over the course of the book and in the end are all natural and unforced.

The relationship between Zac and his son is sweet. And I like how Renee Rose writes these characters so that there is some tension between Becca and Zac when Becca is all like, "uh, excuse me, you show up after seven years and want to just be part of raising our son?"  How they work that out in the bedroom is something you just have to read for yourself.

I'm not a huge reader of Erotica but when combined with romance and when written tastefully, I do enjoy them.  The only thing I may have wanted (because I can't say I disliked it), was less of the spanking.  It seemed to get to where every sexual encounter was relentless punishment spanking and after a while it begins to feel like there's some abusiveness going on.  And it gets redundant after a while.  There is some non-consentual spanking that occurs as well and I didn't like it even though I knew prior to reading that it would be there.  Renee Rose writes it well so I was fine to just not like it and keep going.  The story around all of the spanking is why I kept reading  and why I liked the book.

If you like a good, well-written, hot, steamy, sexy, erotic story with romance and spies, you'll like this book.

Publisher’s Note: Safe in His Arms is an erotic romance novel that includes both consensual and non-consensual spankings, anal play, graphic sexual scenes, and more. If such material offends you, please don’t buy this book.

Book Review of "Little Joe" by Michael Glasscock III

I don't know if others bothered to read the Q&A with the author at the end of the book or if they simply didn't notice it at the end of the book, but I noticed that some of the reviewers who didn't like the book as much as I did seemed to think Michael Glasscock did a lot of research to write this book.  What we find out in the Q&A with the author was that a lot of these characters are based on real life people and the grandparents are based on his own maternal grandparents who he lived with for nine months out of the year.  He also wrote most of the book from his own memory.

The other thing I noticed about many (not all) who rated and reviewed the book a little bit lower were either from a much younger generation (basically anybody who didn't have WW2 era grandparents) OR, they didn't know a whole lot of their WW2 history or what American culture was like during that time.  The reaction to the grandparents from younger readers find the grandparents harsh or uncaring.  What they either missed or don't seem to know is that it was the 1940's, it was during WW2 and one's elders spoke to children much differently than they do today.  That's because they were more strict.  Seems to me the younger generation readers don't know that entitlement, or that the world owes you something was not taught back then.  If you wanted anything at all during that time, you worked for the money to buy it or you built it yourself or you did some kind of work for trade.

But, the story follows Little Joe Stout who goes to live with his grandparents in Round Rock, TN in the early 1940's during WW2 after he and his parents are in a car accident from a blown tire.  Both of Little Joe's parents die in the accident and a new life (and lifestyle) is thrust upon the young boy.

His grandparents are what I would describe as "tough old birds."  LIttle Joe's grandmother, who becomes Mommy Washington to Joe, is your basic, older Southern woman, who cooks everything in bacon grease, reads a lot, smokes a lot and is your traditional church-going wife.  At the same time, even though she lost her only daughter, she's a tough old bird.  She may be strict and she might appear to be pushing Little Joe too quickly to "get over" the death of his parents but I think that's just how it was back then.  These would be people who lived through The Depression and then they have to live through a war.  What we don't get to read about, presumably because the story is about Little Joe, is that Little Joe's grandmother probably spent quite a few nights in her room, by herself, grieving for the loss of her only daughter and thanking God for sparing her grandson.  So yes, she's tough and strict and makes Little Joe do chores but she's not mean or evil or nasty.  Country life is different than city life and when she tells Little Joe that he'll get used to country living and country food, she's not being mean, she's being strong.

At first, one might think Little Joe's grandfather, Daddy Washington, is a total milquetoast.  Not at all.  He's a quiet Southern gentleman who probably lets his wife think she rules the roost while he goes out and makes a living as the town engineer.  He's got his man-cave (the garage), he sits down and eats what his wife puts in front of him and we don't see the grandparents argue.  Just because we don't see it, doesn't mean they don't.

And then there are Little Joe's friends.  Sugar is a bit of a tom-boy but still wears her hair in girly pigtails and talks about who likes who on the school bus.  Bobby is a "colored" boy from the "colored" part of town.  Most of the action we see with the three of them is at Little Joe's farm although we do see them going to other places in the book.  Sugar can kick a shin that'll put tears in your eyeballs and Bobby is just a fun little boy.  It doesn't take long to figure out that these three are no doubt friends for life even though the book spans the first year of Little Joe's life in his new home and environment.

We get a look at racism in this book when Little Joe's grandmother stands up to the local "white trash" bullies who try to beat a Chinese man traveling through on the way to see his son who is leaving for the war.  The town bullies seem to be all adult white men who believe he's a "Jap" and think he should be in one of the camps with the rest of the "Japs."

Little Joe quickly learns that his grandmother doesn't like people who don't like people who hate "colored people" or anyone who is different (i.e. not white).  This is a time where Jim Crow laws are in effect and there are separate water fountains, separate schools, etc.  And she's not this way to be all political or to make statements.  She is how she is because she respects all human beings.  Little Joe comes to his grandparents already uncorrupted but his grandmother strengthens that attitude by leading by example.

The only thing I could not figure out was the age gap.  If Little Joe's grandfather is 70 years old, then surely his grandmother is in her mid to late 60's. How do they have a 9 year old grandson and they only had ONE child?  Since everybody had children so young back in that time, I would have guessed Little Joe's grandparents to be in their 40's, perhaps late 40's.  When I was 9, my own WW2 era grandmother was well into her 50's but she had 11 children.  So when I was in my early 20's, she was in her early 70's.  It was just something I noticed but it doesn't take anything away from the book.

Overall, this an A+ book that I loved and I'm looking forward to reading the other three book in the series.  According to the author, the 4th book returns to Little Joe in his late 20's so I can't wait until it's published.  I'm dying to know if Little Joe goes on to be a Veterinarian.

I received a copy of this book from NetGalley for an honest review in return.  I'm looking forward to recommending this book.  It's for anybody who can read.

Book Review of "A Darkness Ascending" by Christobel Kent

This book from Christobel Kent is a part of a series of books that feature Sandro Cellini, a former cop turned private detective.  My first thoughts while delving into the book was that I probably should have read the preceding books first.  I had a hard time grasping who all of the characters were but I'm not sure if this was because the book simply moved too slow to get to the action or if reading the earlier books in the series would have sped that up for me.  There are a bunch of characters all introduced in the early chapters one on top of the other and I had a hard time connecting them to each other.

We do get a prologue that introduces Silvano Niccolo and his partner, Flavia.  It's a fairly simply prologue. Flavia is obviously putting down their newborn infant to bed.  And embedded in the chapter upon chapter of character introductions that follow, Silvano Niccolo is at a political rally or meeting of some sort and he collapses on the stage.

Then Flavia disappears and we find out she's committed suicide.  Or did she?  It's a weird plot of sorts and it is in some ways, a thriller.  Cellini is pulled into the case by Giuli, who as far as I can gather, is some type of foster daughter to Cellini.

This was a tougher mystery for me to read when I typically have no trouble getting drawn in quickly to mysteries in general.  I would not call the entire book flat but there really wasn't what I would call a "climax" here either.  It all kind of goes at one pace, and stays at one level.

I also didn't feel like I was in Italy either.  This could have taken place in the underground halls and alleyways of anywhere.  Except for the names of the characters and places which are in Italian, I didn't get any feel for any of the Italian political culture.

Overall, I would still recommend the book.  But, I would tell potential readers to start with the first book in the series as I think I would have had a better experience if I had done the same.  I gave it 4 stars because I thought it was "very good" with 3 stars being "good" and 5 stars being "excellent."  And I only subtracted a star because of the slow moving feeling.  I couldn't subtract stars for other things because it felt not fair since I hadn't read the other books that came before this one.

I received a copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley in return for an honest review of this book.