Elaine White's Life in Books
The Author
Elaine White is the author of multi-genre MM romance, celebrating 'love is love' and offering diversity in both genre and character within her stories.
Growing up in a small town and fighting cancer in her early teens taught her that life is short and dreams should be pursued. She lives vicariously through her independent, and often hellion characters, exploring all possibilities within the romantic universe.
The Winner of two Watty Awards – Collector's Dream (An Unpredictable Life) and Hidden Gem (Faithfully) – and an Honourable Mention in 2016's Rainbow Awards (A Royal Craving) Elaine is a self-professed geek, reading addict, and a romantic at heart.
The Reviewer
I’m an author and reader, who just can’t get away from books. I discovered the MM genre a few years ago and became addicted.
Top #50 UK reviewer on Goodreads
#1 reviewer on Divine Magazine
Phonebook
Book – Phonebook (Ryan and Scott #2)Author – Amy Lane
Star rating - ★★☆☆☆
No. of Pages - 30
Movie Potential – ★☆☆☆☆
Ease of reading – much easier to read than book 1.
Would I read it again – No. Not enticing enough.
** I WAS GIVEN THIS BOOK, BY THE AUTHOR, IN RETURN FOR AN HONEST REVIEW **
Reviewed for Divine Magazine
WARNING: This is book 2 in a series. I say this, because the publisher page and the page/information I was given, when deciding whether to review this or not, didn't tell me that. Book 1 is only available in the anthology: Curious? A Woman's Introduction to Gay Romance.
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I came to this immediately after reading (and so not loving) the first book in the Ryan and Scott series. What was lacking in book 1 – a plot, namely, as well as character development – I got here. The characters of Ryan and Scott (the only characters this time around) were much better fleshed out and read like a real couple, rather than two guys who met and suddenly had a solid, permanent relationship after four months together.
The plot was good. It wasn't great, since the story was still mainly about sex, but there was more of a plot here than book 1. There were some good one liners that made me smile, but I wouldn't be outright laughing at them. There were some sweet moments, but again, not the kind of heart-warming stuff that you'd normally expect.
Generally, it was luke warm. If all three books had been a novel in chronological order, with more attention to detail and character development, these two characters could have given us a really great story. Unfortunately, their story has been chopped into short, hot snippets that leave no real room for tenderness or “love” in anything but the remotest form. The stories are sex, with a hint of plot thrown in for good measure, but never really reaching that evened out stage.
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Overall, it was a good short story. Not something I'd come back to, nothing something that is going to stay with me, but decent. I might even read the third story, which I wasn't going to do after reading book 1. If you want a short set of books to read, with very light kink and a lot of sex, then this series will be right up your alley.
However – and this is a HUGE however – I feel cheated. The story ends at 69%. After that, we have 11 pages of adverts (cover and blurb) for another 5 Amy Lane books AND 4 pages of Amy Lane books in list form. This really ticks me off, because I was anticipating at least another 1-2 chapters of story, when I turned that last page. I wondered what it could be, since the story itself seemed tied up nicely. Then, WHAM!, it's over and there's another 30% of the book left.
If I'd bought this book, instead of being given an ARC to review, I would be very unhappy.
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