Genre: Contemporary
LGBTQ+ Category: Bi, Gay
Reviewers: Ulysses, Maryann
Get It On Amazon
About The Book
Bedroom eyes, that’s the name my mom gave them.Before I travelled to the UK, she issued me plenty of warnings: don’t look the wrong way when crossing the road, the first floor was the second floor, and no one would know what I meant if I asked for ranch dressing at a restaurant.
But the perils of shy, beautiful men like Tristan Carter? Men with walking canes and hearing aids and those damned bedroom eyes, hidden behind a curtain of silky blond hair?
She forgot to tell me anything about those. And I messed up badly. Monumentally. The kind of misjudgment that had me waking in a cold sweat, wanting to catch the next flight back to my pampered college life in the US. Except I couldn’t, seeing as I’d messed up there too.
So I stayed. I got a job, grew up, and learned some harsh life lessons. Worked out what I wanted to do with my future. Drank warm beer, chilled with my big brother. Ferried Tristan Carter across London. Helped him in and out of the car. Goofed around with him. Tumbled headlong in love with him.
Bedroom eyes. I’m an absolute sucker for those.
The Review
Ulysses:
The purpose of m/m romance is to evoke emotions. Yes, characters are important and the plot matters a lot; but you need feel something.
To me, romance novels are like landscape paintings: we all know what to expect in a landscape painting, but it is the artist’s skill that provides light, color, and details that separate it from all other similar works. This is something at which Fearne Hill excels.
Cloud 9 is the story of two families: the Carters, and the St. Clouds. They are linked by the relationship of two young men: Frankie Carter and Lysander St. Cloud. However, while this couple (a bisexual American and a genderfluid Brit) is the catalyst for the story, they are actually secondary.
It is Lysander’s little brother Dominic and Frankie’s “younger” triplet—the third born Tristan Carter—at the center of this story of redemption and unexpected love.
Dominic is a sort of archetypal California frat boy: feckless, self-centered, and fully embraces the hedonistic side of college life in the USA. He means well, but he always seems to fall short of his Olympic-medalist big brother.
Tristan is only younger than his siblings Maddie and Frankie by a few minutes, but he is also deaf and has cerebral palsy. He both treasures and bristles at their relentless oversight of his well-being.
Unlike Dominic, Tristan has never known a physically easy day in his life. Nonetheless he manages his physical limits, enjoys his job, and has a small circle of friends as devoted to him as his siblings are.
Then Dominic, like an ill-trained young demigod, comes crashing into Tristan’s world and throws both families into confusion. This is where the story really begins, and watching Dominic attempt to turn his life around is no less affecting than seeing Tristan’s hesitant response to that transformation.
There are not a lot of surprises here, but Hill has done her job well, offering up finely-painted details and beautifully rendered light, illuminating a small story and making it feel epic.
Five stars.
Maryann
Everything is going great and there’s excitement all around as Lysander St. Cloud and Frankie Carter announce that they’re getting married! Things couldn’t get any better, only worse, when Lysander’s younger brother Dominic comes to London.
Dominic St. Cloud is twenty-one, and is privileged. He thinks the world revolves around him – he’s spoiled, brash and kind of a bully. He has screwed up, again, and has been shipped off to London. His father spares no expense to get Dominic out of the US in order to save the family name, at least until the mess he caused is no longer in the public eye.
Dominic has been in London for a few weeks and claims to hate it. He’s living temporarily in a sub-penthouse, below his brother’s penthouse. He has a mini-internship lined up with the family business – Cloud Ten Construction – and once that’s done, he’ll go home to California and finish his business courses at SDSU.
Big mistake! When he meets with Lysander and Frankie, he tells them about his night in the basement’s sports complex, pool andhot tub, and how he took care of a “pervert” who snuck into the building.
Tristan Carter is the youngest of the Carter triplets: him, Frankie and Maddie. Being the youngest is not easy. He’s lived with cerebral palsy and being deaf for all of his twenty-five years. He tries hard to be independent, and works at a vintage record shop. He is very popular with those that come into the record shop and he has an admirer, Neil. He has two great friends in Mungo and Milo. He’s kind of sheltered living with his brother and Lysander. But Tristan does his best to not let his disabilities control his life. He’s tired of self-pity parties, and he has all those other feelings that come with being human.
For Tristan a one a.m. dip in the hot tub is therapeutic and perfect. He sneaks down to have time for himself without anyone else around. Just when he starts to relax, he realizes he’s not alone. He’s fearful and embarrassed to even let anyone see his body. He tries his best to sneak out before he’s noticed, but it’s too late and he’s confronted by an awful bully.
What will happen when Dominic meets his brother-in-law to be, Tristan? It won’t be easy, even if Dominic gets a chance to apologize. Plus, he has to face the fury of Lysander, Frankie’s family and Tristan’s friend, and they won’t make it easy on him.
Hill’s bully-to-friends, and maybe, to-lovers story brings out Tristan and Dominic’s opposite personalities, and the life lessons both need to learn.
Dominic, while working for Cloud Ten Construction, meets men who have their own struggles, and has to learn how to be responsible and own up to his mistakes. Most of all, he learns about Tristan who, despite his disabilities, has his own feelings and dreams, leads a productive life and is just like anyone else. The more he’s given the opportunity to be around Tristan, the more he starts to see him in a new light. Tristan keeps him calm, grounded and even creates a spark of jealousy, along with other emotions that will change his outlook on life and the future.
The author seasons this well-written tale with a host of quirky characters: Tristan’s sister Maddie; her partner Darren and baby Rosie; Maureen, Chauffeur/friend of Tristan’s; Emily, Tristan’s boss and Irene, her partner at the vintage record shop; Neil, a musician and a regular at the record shop who has his eye on Tristan; Tristan’s Mom and Doorman Dave. Daphne, Dominic’s big sister; Aunt Pauline ex-wife to Uncle Paul but still works at Cloud Ten; a variety of Cloud Ten relatives; and Jason, Mick and Dick the construction workers.
Cloud Nine is entertaining, with moments of humor, a bit of drama, and many life lessons. The first book in the “Nailed It” series is Cloud Ten, where Lysander St. Cloud and Frankie Carter first meet.
The Reviewer
Ulysses Grant Dietz grew up in Syracuse, New York, where his Leave It to Beaver life was enlivened by his fascination with vampires, from Bela Lugosi to Barnabas Collins. He studied French at Yale, and was trained to be a museum curator at the University of Delaware. A curator since 1980, Ulysses has never stopped writing fiction for the sheer pleasure of it. He created the character of Desmond Beckwith in 1988 as his personal response to Anne Rice’s landmark novels. Alyson Books released his first novel, Desmond, in 1998. Vampire in Suburbia, the sequel to Desmond, is his second novel.
Ulysses lives in suburban New Jersey with his husband of over 41 years and their two almost-grown children.
By the way, the name Ulysses was not his parents’ idea of a joke: he is a great-great grandson of Ulysses S. Grant, and his mother was the President’s last living great-grandchild. Every year on April 27 he gives a speech at Grant’s Tomb in New York City.
Hi, I’m Maryann, I started life in New York, moved to New Hampshire and in 1965 uprooted again to Sacramento, California. Once I retired I moved to West Palm Beach, Florida in 2011 and just moved back to Sacramento in March of 2018. My son, his wife and step-daughter flew out to Florida and we road tripped back so they got to see sights they have never seen. New Orleans and the Grand Canyon were the highlights. Now I am back on the west coast again to stay! From a young age Ialways liked to read.
I remember going to the library and reading the “Doctor Dolittle” books by Hugh Lofting. Much later on became a big fan of the classics, Edgar Alan Poe, Mary Shelley, Bram Stoker and as time went by Agatha Christie, Ray Bradbury and Stephen Kingand many other authors.
My first M/M shifter book I read was written by Jan Irving the “Uncommon Cowboys” series from 2012. She was the first author I ever contacted and sent an email to letting her know how much I liked this series. Sometime along the way I read “Zero to the Bone”by Jane Seville, I think just about everyone has read this book!
As it stands right now I’m really into mysteries, grit, gore and “triggers” don’t bother me. But if a blurb piques my interest I will read the book.
My kindle collection eclectic and over three thousand books and my Audible collection is slowly growing. I have both the kindle and audible apps on my ipod, ipads, and MAC. So there is never an excuse not to be listening or reading.
I joined Goodreads around 2012 and started posting reviews. One day a wonderful lady, Lisa Horan of The Novel Approach, sent me an email to see if I wanted to join her review group. Joining her site was such an eye opener. I got introduce to so many new authors that write for the LGBTQ genre. Needless to say, it was heart breaking when it ended.
But I found a really great site, QRI and it’s right here in Sacramento. Last year at QSAC I actually got to meet Scott Coatsworth, Amy Lane and Jeff Adams.
