Category: 5 star Rating

A BJ Review: SPECTR: The Complete First Series (#1-6) by Jordan L. Hawk, 
Audio narration by Brad Langer

Rating:  5 stars out of 5      ★★★★★audiobook clipart bw

Audiobook cover of SPECTRSPECTR: The Complete First Series contains:
Hunter of Demon
Master of Ghouls
Reaper of Souls
Eater of Lives
Destroyer of Worlds
Summoner of Storms

What happens when an exorcist falls in love with the demon he’s supposed to destroy?

Unregistered paranormal Caleb Jansen only wants a normal life. But when the demon-hunting spirit Gray accidentally possesses him, Caleb finds himself in a countdown for his very existence.

Hotshot federal agent John Starkweather thinks he’s seen it all. But when he’s called to exorcise Caleb, he finds a creature that isn’t supposed to exist outside of stories. For Gray is a drakul: a vampire who drinks the blood of the demon-possessed.

If Gray can’t be exorcised within 40 days, the possession will become permanent. In the meantime, the three must find a way to work together. As they hunt down demons and save the innocent, the heat between John and Caleb explodes into passion. But when divided loyalties threaten his last chance at exorcism, Caleb discovers love may come at a price higher than he’d ever imagined.

I did a combination of listening to the audio and reading with this series, depending on what I was doing so this is not strictly an audio review. The narrator had a voice that was easy to listen to, and he did a nice job with the series. If you decide to purchase the full set audio from Audible, you may see a review there that indicates the audio is not unabridged. Rest assured, it is. There was a bit of a snafu when first released where a few sections were left out, that was corrected. Please don’t let that review stand in your way of purchasing the full audio as it is an enjoyable listen! The story takes place in the south, and there isn’t really a noticeable southern accent used (I’m Southern born/raised, albeit I not longer live there). However, that didn’t actually bother me. I’d much rather have that than listen to incorrect or overuse of particular southernisms as I’ve heard in some other books recently. So overall, a lovely series whether you read it or listen to it. Highly recommend. Now on to the individual stories, which all fit together wonderfully as a whole and should definitely be read in order!

Hunter of Demons – 4.5 stars

Right from book one, which I picked up free and read before getting into the series as a while, I could see that this paranormal is imaginative and different. The world building is solid and the two human characters captured my interest right away but adding Gray, the drakul, into the equation really upped the ante. I’m not usually all that hot on ménage, but this one is an exception. I adored the concept of this unusual threesome! Caleb and Gray’s internal dialogue was perfect. There are trust issues all around from the start. Between Caleb and John, since as an unregistered “mal” Caleb has always been leery of the government and isn’t pleased to find himself attracted to a federal agent. Between Caleb and Gray, because he blames him for his brother’s death. And of course John’s duty is to destroy Gray. Could there be any more tension among these three?! This was well-paced story and a quick read for me. The first is still free, I think. Read it and if you’re anything like me, you’ll quickly be chomping at the bit for the series as a whole.

Master of Ghouls – 4.5 stars

This one takes place just a few days after the end of book one. It starts off with a bang… oh, no, that’s a blow actually. In this second book, the mystery revolves around someone who is summoning demons and forcing them to possess folks snatched from the streets. We get plenty of heat, and we get to know the characters more. Gray and Caleb begin the first tentative steps towards understanding, but there is still a ways to go, while John and Caleb’s relationship deepens.   

Reaper of Souls – 5 stars

When an incubus murders an ally of a senator who’s very much anti-paranormal, John and Caleb are on the case. The mystery and action in this one was fast-paced, but it was something else entirely that made this my first five star of the series. This is the one where Gray truly became more of a character in his own right for me, where we come to see that his voyeurism of Caleb and John’s relationship is more than that. This one made me, someone who’s not big into threesomes, begin to long for that third party’s active participation. That little hint of it was like a combustion!

Eater of Lives – 4.75 stars

This one takes the prize for gruesome, icky, creepy bad guy. Cannibalism! The guys are on the case, Caleb’s forty days are running out, and John’s ex shows up to make the tension even higher. Emotions are really starting to run high in all three. I don’t want to give too much of the story away, so suffice it to say that the ending was very abrupt, yep a cliffhanger. Not a problem if you have the whole series, like I did, but I’m sure I would have been frothing at the mouth if I hadn’t had the next part in queue. The possession aspect of this series and the way John meshes well with both Caleb and Gray is just fascinating to watch unfold.

Destroyer of Worlds – 5 stars

And now we come to my most favorite book of the series. Now I know that even if I been one of those who had to wait a month for this next excerpt, it would have been well worth it. Fast-paced, plenty of tension, blazing heat, excellent characterizations, and twists galore. A betrayal that comes out of left field and turns everything on it’s head. But in this one we begin to get answers and the triad I’d been long for blooms. A heavenly delicious delicacy with a demon on top. Yum!

Summoner of Storms – 5 stars

John is finally forced to take off the rose-tinted glasses and face the knowledge that things he thought he knew and could trust in are smoke. Outstanding action and battle scenes with serious baddie ass kicking, lovely sexy, emotional, hot times, and a satisfying ending. Nonetheless, it left me wanting more of these three. And I am so glad that the author heard her fan’s please for more. Book one of SPECTR 2 is already available. Yay.

This series is awesome, highly recommended. If you don’t believe me already, pick up book one for free (Amazon, Kobo, B&N) and give it a read today.

COVER Art by Jordan L. Hawk: The covers which vary from Caleb, John and Gray are just STUNNING.

Sales Links:  Amazon Kindle |  Audible | Buy It Here | Goodreads Other Links


Book Details:  

798 pages

Audiobook
Published by Widdershins Press LLC (first published November 30th 2014)
edition languageEnglish
seriesSPECTR #1-6

A MelanieM Review: Status Update (#gaymers 1) by Annabeth Albert

Rating: 5 stars out of 5

Status UpdateAdrian Gottlieb is winning at life. He’s a successful video game designer with everything a man could ask for, including a warm comfy ride to Denver and a date for his sister’s wedding. But he finds himself in need of a total reboot when he’s left stranded at a snowy campground in Utah. Holiday plans? Epic fail.

That is until Noah Walters offers him shelter for the night and a reluctant cross-country ride. Nothing about the ultraconservative geoarchaeologist should attract Adrian, but once he discovers Noah’s hidden love for video games, the two connect on a new level. Soon, a quiet but undeniable chemistry sparks.

Something doesn’t add up, though. As the miles accumulate and time runs out, Noah must face the most difficult choice of his life. Meanwhile, Adrian must decide whether he’s ready to level up. Is their relationship status worth fighting for, or has this game ended before it’s even begun?

If Annabeth Albert hadn’t already made me a fan with her previous stories,  this is the one that would have sealed the deal.  Status Update, the first in a new #gaymer series, proves to be a sweet, sparkling romance, with filled with endearing characters that grab at your heart. That holds especially true of the main couple, both men are unusual, layered, and real.  Throw in two irrepressible dog characters like Pixel and Ulysses that are a perfect match for their owners and I was in love from the moment the story rolled out in that campground’s off leash dog area in Utah.

The Capitol Reef National Park campground in Southern Utah is a strange meeting place for these two men to collide. Adrian Gottlieb, successful video game designer is on his way to his sister’s wedding in a rented RV with a man he barely knows.  Noah Walters, a geoarcheologist, is holed up in his camper, his home away from home,  trying to finish his book that will get him tenure at his conservative bible college in Texas.   But in a wildly painful yet could be expected turn of events, Adrian, 25, and Pixel are left stranded in the campground until Noah offers not only refuge but an passage to Denver and Adrian’s sister’s wedding.

Sounds so simple, but the men and story are so complex.  Noah’s upbringing has left him firmly in the closet, His choice of profession and job has kept him there.  Noah realizes that to come out would be losing his teaching job, which he loves and any chance at tenure in a profession where jobs are scare.  That choice has also left him a virgin and celibate at the age of 35 and up until he meets Adrian, Noah has accepted the limitations of his life and its loneliness.

If for no other reason  that the character of Noah Walters, this book would garner high praise for its author.  He’s an adult, with a mature outlook on his life, taking responsibility for the choices he has  made.  He’s rueful, awkward, gruff, and intelligent.  I found him to be so remarkable and wonderful.  Add to that he put away his sexuality and committed to a path of celibacy for the sake of his profession, that extra bit of unexpected vulnerability just makes you ache for him and gives Noah that one more twist to his already different persona.

But then comes Adrian Gottlieb, a character who is on par with Noah in every respect.  He too is complex, full of his own layers and unexpected depth.  His success and commitment to the popular videogame, Space Villager, has left him little time for a social life, which also helps to explain the disaster that led their meeting. That adage that ‘appearances can be deceiving’ certainly applies to Adrian as Noah finds out almost immediately.  Both men, highly intelligent, find themselves oddly compatible, as are their dog companions. Their relationship within Noah’s small RV, their time on the road as their explore each other boundaries…sexual, personal, emotional,  takes the reader on such an a rewarding journey along with these men to Denver and the wedding that you hope it will never stop.

Then it does.

And the story gets better.  Because when their trip stops, decisions have to be made.  Its reality time.  And Annabeth Albert takes these two serious men, the slow, sometimes painful journey they have been on and completes it in the most wondrous, satisfactory way.  It makes sense,  its real, and not without a prick or two of regret.  So yes, its perfect.  Except for one little detail.

Space Villager does not exist.  How I wish it did.  There was this teaser as the end…just no… it does not exist.  But I won’t take away any stars for that disappointment.

Book Cover was a delight.  I  loved that the dogs were included.  Great job.

Sales Links:    All Romance (ARe) | Amazon | Buy It Here

Book Details:

ebook, 195 pages
Expected publication: December 7th 2015 by Carina
original title Status Update
ISBN 1459290593 (ISBN13: 9781459290594)
series #gaymers #1

A BJ Review: Watch Me (Break You) (Run This Town #1) by Avril Ashton

Rating:  5 stars out of 5   ★★★★★

Here comes trouble…

Watch Me (Break You)

Men. Women. Drugs. Dima Zhirkov’s favorite things. Add in the element of danger and he should be right as rain. But not today. It’s not working, hasn’t for a long time. He’s grasping at the flimsiest of straws to prove he’s indeed strong enough to run his streets. Until he sets eyes on him. In the midst of a room full of strangers, Dima is drawn to a man as cold and dangerous as he’s beautiful. Captivated, Dima embarks on a ruthless campaign to get his new toy into bed.

Here comes the danger…
Xavier “X” Storm is content to pull the strings while someone else handles the day to day dealings of his gang, The Rude Boys. He’s after what Dima holds closest—the Coney Island streets. He contracts out the job of killing the Russian, except Dima isn’t that easy to kill. When he suddenly shows up in X’s path, tempting him to indulge in the dirtiest play, he finds Dima isn’t all that easy to shake, either. His cocky attitude and rough submission tempts X to go where he’d vowed to never return, and they plunge head first into an affair fueled by possessive obsession.

Run for cover.
Sex and pain Dima can handle, and X delivers the most depraved kind. Their connection is explosive, their games addictive, but Dima can end it whenever he wishes. He doesn’t see that X is breaking him down, giving Dima everything he wants and even more than he ever thought to need. By the time he realizes who X is and what he wants, Dima is raw and bullet riddled. It’s run or fight. And Dima doesn’t back down. Neither does X.

These guys are brutal, harsh and totally, spellbindingly captivating. They’re bad boys without a doubt, but their story sucked me in, grabbed me by the throat, and made me care. Both characters are interesting and well-developed. Loved the interracial aspect. Plus I adored Dima right off from nearly the first page, but when the author puts these two together it’s electric. This story is off the charts, sizzling hot. Definitely a one-handed read, but yet so much more.

It’s also a fast-paced, hold-onto-your-seat kind of story that I simply couldn’t put down. I adore enemies-to-lovers tropes, and this story puts a twist on it that I found enthralling. You see, one of the main character’s true identity is unknown to the other for some time, and hence only one knows they are enemies at the start. When the truth eventually comes out, oh man, the betrayal… just delicious.

Did I mention that these are some seriously bad guys… criminals! Gangsters! They’re violent, enjoy giving/receiving pain, like kinky, raunchy, dirty sex and plenty of it. They lie and kill, they’re seriously shitty to each other, and they’re possessive as hell. Stalking, sadistic, and sometimes bat-shit crazy. But you know what, despite all that, the author made me care for them, fall in love with them, cry for them, and despite the awesome HEA endng which I adored, I’m still left desperately wanting to read more about them!

This book is an e-ticket ride… fast, wild, fun, kinky and absolutely worth the price of admission!  Hop on board. I cannot recommend this book more highly.

The cover is excellent. I like that it doesn’t include the typical men. It gives a sense of location and a just right hint of the kinky content, the color and mood is dead on, it just feels right.

Sales Links:   Amazon | Buy It Here


Book Details:  

Kindle Edition, 278 pages
Published September 9th 2014 by Sinner’s Haven Publishing (first published September 5th 2014)
original title(Watch Me) Break You
ASINB00MWMQYHC
edition languageEnglish
seriesRun This Town #1
charactersDima Zhirkov, Xavier Storm

Cover Reveal for ‘Red Dirt Christmas’ by N.R. Walker – Its Finally Here! (Teaser and Giveaway)

ReddirtheartChristmas1500

Red Dirt Christmas by N.R. Walker

Publication date: 11 December 2015

Buylinks to follow:

Scattered Thoughts and Rogue Words is so happy to have N.R. Walker stopping by revealing her cover for her Christmas story for the Red Dirt Heart series, one of our favorites.  Its gorgeous, let’s hear from the author herself…

~

HERE IT IS!!!!!!

I’ve kept this secret for so long, it’s almost killed me!  But it’s finally here. My 2015 Christmas story cover for the world to see!!  (I’m so excited it’s ridiculous)

That’s right, folks. We’re off to the Outback for Christmas this year!!  I can’t tell you how much I loved visiting these boys again.  I found the cover images and sent them to the fabulous Sara York and almost cried when I saw how gorgeous the cover turned out. It suits the series PERFECTLY.

Now you know why every part of the cover had to be a secret! If I showed one corner, or gave any hints, ya’ll would have guessed it straight away!

 

 

Christmas backgrounds. Christmas decor on the white wooden background.
.

Blurb: Travis had been here for just over a year. We were technically engaged, not that we’d told anyone. He was happy just knowin’ I’d said yes, and I had some head-clearin’ stuff to work through. Knowing I was good enough for Trav was one thing, but knowing if I was good enough to be a husband and father was somethin’ else entirely.

Life at Sutton Station had never been better. Business was strong, Trudy and Bacon’s little baby, Gracie, was a few weeks old now and as cute as a button, Ma’s health was good, and my relationship with Laura and Sam was in a pretty good place. And Travis? Well, life with him was still all kinds of perfect.

But, to Travis’s dismay, Christmas at the Station was just another day. Another day of getting up before the sun, feeding animals, fixin’ what needed fixin’, and checking water troughs all while tryin’ to keep out of the blistering heat.

And this year weren’t much different. Only that it was Travis’s first Sutton Station Christmas. The fact we didn’t go all out with decorations and celebrations baffled him, and if I was bein’ truthful, it disappointed him too.

Which was why I had to make it a special kind of Christmas…

About the Author

N.R. Walker’s Bio: N.R. Walker is an Australian author, who loves her genre of gay romance.
She loves writing and spends far too much time doing it, but wouldn’t have it any other way.

She is many things; a mother, a wife, a sister, a writer. She has pretty, pretty boys who live in her head, who don’t let her sleep at night unless she gives them life with words.

She likes it when they do dirty, dirty things…but likes it even more when they fall in love.

She used to think having people in her head talking to her was weird, until one day she happened across other writers who told her it was normal.

She’s been writing ever since…

N.R. Walker’s Internet Links:

Giveaway

Hop over to my blog here and tell me your best Christmas memory to enter the draw to win a copy of Red Dirt Christmas. Draw closes 11th December at 9am EST.  Must be 18 years of age or older to enter.  Good luck and Happy Reading.

Teaser:

Travis chuckled and nodded toward the lounge room. “I finished the tree,” he said and disappeared through the open doorway. I followed him to find the pine tree he’d brought in earlier now covered in tinsel, ornaments, and baubles. “I know you think the whole Christmas thing is kinda silly, but—”

“I love it,” I said. “The tree. I mean, I love what you’ve done to it.”

“I didn’t have much to work with,” he said. The corner of his mouth pulled down in a frown. “And it was all pretty old. I hung up all the things you made as a kid. I just wanted to do something.” He shrugged again. “I mean, it’s Christmas.”

“Trav.”

“And I know you guys aren’t big on the whole festive thing out here,” he said. “But I just thought it’d be nice, ya know? It’s Gracie’s first Christmas. Granted, she’s only four weeks old but that’s not the point.”

“Trav.”

“It’s about building memories, Charlie,” he said softly. “Family memories. Not just with everyone here, but our family. Ours start now. This is our first real Christmas too and I just thought it might be nice if you, you know, thought it was special too.”

A Scattered Thoughts and Rogue Words Must Read Series!

A BJ Review: Assimilation, Love, and Other Human Oddities (Claimings #2) by Lyn Gala

Rating:  4.5 stars out of 5

Assimilation, Love and Other Human Oddities coverOndry and Liam have settled into a good life, but their trading is still tied up with humans, and humans are always messy. When political changes at the human base lead Ondry to attempt a difficult trade, the pair find themselves entangled in human affairs. Liam wants to help the people he left and the worlds being torn apart. He also wants to serve Ondry with not only the pleasures of the nest but also by bringing human profits.

Ondry has no hope of understanding human psychology in general, he only knows that he will hold onto his palteia with the last breath in his body, and he’d like to keep his status and his wealth too. Unfortunately, new humans bring new conflicts and he is not sure how to protect Liam. He does know one thing that humans seem to constantly forget—that the peaceful Rownt are predators and when their families are threatened, Rownt become deadly killers. Liam is his family, and Ondry will protect him with his last breath… assuming that he can recognize the dangers in time to do so.

I adored book one of this series which means I had very high expectations. While I didn’t quite love this as much as my five starred book one*, I did thoroughly enjoy it.  This series rocks.

The world created for us by the author is simply amazing, I already thought that in book one but it gets even more complex and nuances in book two! I hardly thought that possible. The writing itself is superb. And Liam and Ondry some of the most memorable characters I’ve read recently. I adore reading of how they care for each other so very deeply despite huge differences both physically and culturally. How their love deepens and grows roots… shows so beautifully how love can overcome obstacles.

So why did I enjoyed the first in the series better than this second installment. I think it’s just personal preference because I truly dislike politics, strategy and war/mind games. So those parts read a little slow for me personally.

Don’t get me wrong though, the plot in this story is intricate and brilliantly executed. I adored the way we are shown how Liam adapts to his new homeworld and culture, and the way we see humanity in a light that at times made me favor the Rownt. The romance is there, it grows deeper and more trusting than in book one. But despite there being some D/s elements, neither kink nor sex is at the forefront in this book/series… which may explain why there is no longer a tail on the cover… perhaps the author wanted to avoid folks thinking of this as tentacle porn which it so very much is NOT. And I like the cover just as well without the tail.

I can hardly wait for the next book in this unique and highly recommended series.

Book Cover – see comments above.

Sales Links:  Loose id LLC | All Romance (ARe) | Amazon | Buy It Here

Book Details:  

ebook, 225 pages
Published September 23rd 2014 by Loose-ID
original title Assimilation, Love, and Other Human Oddities
ISBN13 9781623005870
edition language English
url http://lyngala.wordpress.com/2014/06/27/the-claimings-sequel/
series Claimings 
*Claimings, Tails, and Other Alien Artifacts (Claimings, #1) – BJ Review
Assimilation, Love, and Other Human Oddities (Claimings #2)