Dark Horse

Reviving that theme of MM romance, this entry will be about Kate Sherwood's Dark Horse series.  Rather then a two person relationship, the primary relationship in this series is a menage a trois.  In all three books, I would say Dan is the main character, as each one seems to focus mostly on his journey.  The series is easy to summarize as beginning the relationship, working on the relationship, and continuing the relationship.  Because relationships are organic things, I did not want to say beginning, middle, end, because even if at the end of book three I felt these guys were solid, there is always something that can come up.  Aside from the main three books Ms Sherwood has created a plethora of side short stories, much like those for THIRDS, that fill in various blanks that are mentioned, but not explored, in the main novels.  I think in trying, and for the most part succeeding, in telling this story, and not focusing it solely on sex, Ms Sherwood did an excellent job of tackling an unconventional relationship.  The men are attracted to each other, and they do have sex, but that isn't all, and while some of it drama because well drama happens in books and that is why you read them, it didn't seem nearly as contrived as it could have been.  The story arcs seem to progress naturally between the books, with nothing so obvious as to make the reader wonder, where did that come from.  If I recall correctly, Ms Sherwood did mention somewhere that she is not a great advance planner, so I will give her a lot of credit for how well these three books interlock.  Anyway, if you are looking for an interesting series that deals with a non-traditional relationship, this is one I would suggest.  It isn't science fiction or fantasy, but rather romance, which is still a genre that require suspension of disbelief, though happening in the "real" world, makes that suspension more of a hope that such a relationship does actually exist.

MM Romance and series

I was chatting with a friend tonight on the phone and something came to my attention when we were discussing books.  It seems that most of the books I have suggested she read were part of a series of MM Romance.  These weren't the typical series with a different couple each book, but rather a series that focused on a couple for several books, some of the series mentioned were Kate Sherwood's Dark Horse, Lyn Gala's Aliens and Assimilation, the Chaos Station series by Jenn Burke and Kelly Jensen, JC Owens' Gaven series, and Charlie Cochet's THIRDS.  The common denominator for all of these seemed to be that the authors gave the characters more than a single book to grow and develop.  Much of MM Romance gives a single short (80,000 words or so) book time to develop the relationship and wrap it into a happily ever after, that these series, with multiple books devoted to the characters actually give the reader more.  Everyone loves HEA books, but everyone also knows that the happily ever after is a work in progress.  After a few too many shifter books with knotting and an automatic HEA, I think readers deserve in depth view of relationships and the trials that form and strengthen them.  Not every series I mentioned is paranormal, but each works to detail the trials of the couple and how they overcome those obstacles.  Yes, all of them include sex, but that is not a reason to automatically remove them from consideration as good books.  I don't think Dex, from THIRDS, resembles Flick from Chaos Station any more than Liam resemble Gaven, and none of them resemble Dan or anyone from the Dark Horse series.  There isn't a resemblance here that says these folks are filling out a form and fitting in the characters.  All of them have proper motivations and all of these are explored during the course of the series, and I think what appears to be a common length restriction on MM Romance novels may actually do these authors a discredit, because the stories they write deserve to be longer, and I am pleased they take the effort to explore.

For the most part, links will be to the publisher site, but I think all are available on Amazon.