Category: 5 star Rating

A Stella Review: Played! (The Shamwell Tales #2) by J.L. Merrow

Rating 5 stars out of 5

Played coverTristan’s in Shamwell for one last summer of freedom before he joins the family firm in New York—no more farting around on stage, as his father puts it. But the classically trained actor can’t resist when members of the local amateur dramatics society beg him to take a role in their production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

Especially as he’ll also be giving private acting lessons to gorgeous local handyman, Con, who’s been curiously resistant to Tristan’s advances. Tristan’s determined to get Con in his bed—not only is the man delicious, there’s fifty pounds riding on Tristan’s success after a bet made with his drama school chum Amanda.

Con’s never dared to act before. A late-diagnosed dyslexic who had a hard time at school, he’s always been convinced he’d never be able to learn his lines—but with Tristan helping him, he might just be in with a chance. Trouble is, the last time Con fell for a guy, he ended up getting his heart broken, and with Tristan due to leave the country in a matter of months, Con’s determined not to give in and start anything that’s bound to finish badly.

Just as Tristan thinks he’s finally won Con’s heart—and given his own in return—disaster strikes. And the curtain may have fallen forever on their chance of happiness.

Warning: contains a surfeit of Bottoms and asses, together with enough mangled quotations to have the Bard of Avon gyrating in his grave.

 

“Hello. I perused your advertisement in our local emporium. All—”

“You what?”

“I read your card in Tesco,” Tristan clarified with a sigh. Some people had no appreciation for the beauties of the English language. “All household job’s—I assume the apostrophe was ironic?—done, reasonable rates.”

“Er, yeah.” The man on the other end of the phone sounded somewhat nonplussed, possibly due to the way Tristan had stressed the “ibble” at the end of reasonable. “What’s the problem?”

“Biblical.”

“What?”

“I have a plague of frogs.”[…] “A frog,” the handyman was saying. There was another pause. “So technically, yeah, that’s a plague of frog. One of ’em.”

“Semantics. The plural, in this case, may be taken to include the singular.”

“Right… Look, I think you want pest control, anyhow.”

“Finally we reach agreement. So how soon can you be here?”

This is where I fell in love with Tristan. He was amazing, hilarious. I loved how Tristan talked.

Let’s start my review saying I read Played!, which is the second book in the Shamwell Tales series by JL Merrow, without having read Caught!, the first one, and I can assure you I didn’t miss anything, it just increased my curiosity about Caught!  Having different main characters, it isn’t exactly a sequel. So if you are interested just in Tristan and Con’s story, you can totally buy it. You won’t regret it.

Tristan has just moved to Shamwell where he is going to spend the the “last summer of freedom”. He is trading is biggest passion for acting with a boring (and hated) career at a desk job, working for his father’s firm in NY, a father who has never supported him in his dream of acting. No one ever supported him in his dreams, apart from his dear grandmother (Nana Geary). She’s just passed away and left him her house. So he’s planning to spend the summer in Shamwell to dispose Nana’s things before starting his new and boring life.

He meets Con when he called for help after a plague of frogs (it was really just one frog!).

Con works as an handyman with Sean (MC in Caught!). He moved to Shamwell where he met Geary the time he went to do some home repairs to her. She took him in and treated him like the mother Con’s has never been.

The first meeting with Tristan doesn’t go well. Tristan is funny but a prick, he’s used to having what he wants, he speaks perfectly and can’t stop himself in correcting the people who don’t. Con can’t stand Tristan. But nobody has ever turned Tristan down, Con is the first one, because he is not looking for just some fun, he needs something real and not casual.

When a new actor is needed for the role of Bottom in the Midsummer Night’s Dream production by the local theater, it  will take Tristan to convince Con to join the play and to help him with his dyslexia.  Con starts to overcome his fears and most of all to see who is the real Tristan hiding behind the snobby one.

There is a great cast of second characters, starting from Heather, Con’s friend. Some seem snobby as Tristan, others simple and sweet and caring as Con. They have some kickass friends.

Shortly JL Merrow did it again. She gave me another favorite book which is going to join the beautiful Muscling Through. The amazing Tristan will stay in my heart as Al did. I found this book fascinated. As I think I already said I love how the author puts words together in this so British way she has. She delivered a funny and light story, with a plot and great characters, a Tristan full of doubts and fears on his future. Sometime sure convinced that working for his dad will help him mature and become more responsible, other times that theater was just for fun. The relationship with Con will help him grow up so much at the end of the book, I (and Con) couldn’t love him more.

Moreover I can add I’m not a huge fan of slow burn and with almost no sex stories, I like my men to start loving each other pretty quickly in the book I’m reading and rather only a few times, otherwise I bore easily. Well in Played! I had no time to be bored. There was no dead moment, every sentence was full of humor, I laughed so much at Tristan.

Played! was an absolute winner, really really good. I don’t even know what to say to recommend you to buy it. I loved it so much.

Cover art by Kanaxa. You know, I can’t explain why, cause honestly there is nothing special about it, but I really like it.

Sales Links:  Samhain Publishing – All Romance (ARe) – Amazon  Buy It Here

Book Details:

Published January 30th 2015 by Samhain Publishing, Ltd.
Kindle Edition
ASIN B00U3M60TU
Edition language English
The Shamwell Tales series
Caught! #1
Played! #2

A BJ Review: Straight Boy (Straight Guys 0.5) by Alessandra Hazard

Rating:  5 stars out of 5

Straight Boy coverYoung, blond and handsome, Sage attracts unwanted attention in prison. When his cellmate offers him protection, Sage accepts the offer, even though he doesn’t trust the guy. Little does he know how much it will change his life.

When he’s released from prison, Sage finds himself needing and wanting things he shouldn’t want. Sage is straight. He really is. He has a girlfriend. What happened in prison stayed in prison–or so Sage tells himself.

Until he meets his former cellmate again. Xavier. The guy he hates and craves.

This short novelette contains explicit language and very steamy M/M sex. For mature audiences only. ~12,500 words

Handsome young Sage finds himself in prison for a DUI and attracting a lot of attention from the other inmates. Fearing whether he’ll survive his one-year sentence alive, he accepts an offer of protection from his cellmate, Xavier. The price for that protection is his body. Although Sage tells himself he’s straight and just doing it to get by, but he finds out things about himself he didn’t know. When he’s released from prison, he finds himself unable to control his body from wanting what he had in prison, or his mind from thinking of Xavier.

But Sage tried to pick his life up again, to focus on his girlfriend, firmly telling himself he’s straight, that nothing’s changed. Until he meets Xavier, the man he hates and craves, again on the outside.

I have a bit of a thing for prison stories, so I enjoyed the hell out of this short. It’s well-written, excellent pacing, and all kinds of hot. The sexual tension buildup is off the charts and smoking. This is one on my re-read shelf for times that I want something short and scorching.

I’d love an expansion of this story that tells more background on Xavier, I really would, because I loved him. A little of it comes out a sequel, but it wasn’t nearly enough. My one tiny niggle with this book is the name Sage. It sounds so feminine to me no matter how I keep telling myself it’s unisex. But that’s minor. I thoroughly enjoyed this.

The cover is erotic and fitting for the book.

Sales Links:      Amazon       Buy It Here

Book Details:

48 pages
Published October 10th 2014 by Alessandra Hazard

A Stella Review: Caught! (The Shamwell Tales #1) by J.L. Merrow

Rating: 5 stars out of 5

You can run from the past…but the past runs faster.

Shamwell Tales, Book 1

Caught coverBehind Robert’s cheerfully eccentric exterior lies a young heart battered and bruised by his past. He’s taken a job teaching in a village primary school to make a fresh start, and love isn’t part of his plans. But he’s knocked for six—literally—by a chance encounter with the uncle of two of his pupils.

Sean works in pest control, rides a motorbike, and lives on a council estate. On the face of it, he shouldn’t have anything in common with Robert’s bow-tie, classic-car style and posh family background. Yet Robert is helpless to resist Sean’s roguish grin, and a rocky, excruciatingly embarrassing start doesn’t keep the sparks between them from flaring.

Despite Robert’s increasingly ludicrous attempts to keep his past where it belongs, his past hasn’t read the memo. And soon his secrets could be the very things that drive Sean away for good…

Warning: Contains the alarming misadventures of a pest control technician, a stepsister with a truly unfortunate name, and a young man who may have more bow ties than sense.

Okay, confession time for me: I had with JL Merrow a love/hate relationship until last month (of course she didn’t know about it LOL). This amazing author wrote one of the first mm books I read back when I became obsessed with men loving men. The book is called Muscling Through and it still is one of my fave re-read. I fell in love with it and with the great way JL have to put words together. This love brought me to Hard Tail and there, it started my hate. I realized she was too “British” to my poor English. Sure it was my fault but I had to leave it behind and hated it. Three years later here I am, I came back to her, cause I honestly couldn’t resist The Shamwell Tales series anymore. I read it out of order, first Played! and then this one, Caught!

So far I read four of her books and I don’t want to stop! We can discuss about plots, characters, etc, but the feeling I have is the same in every book: satisfaction. That’s the word I have in mind when I think of her works.

Caught! was another winner to me. The story was definitely light, with a lot of humor and some incredible second characters, especially I’m thinking about Rob’s best friend, Rose, who was my favourite one, sometimes I liked her more that Robert himself. She acted exactly as I hope my friend should be: true in her harsh words, cheering and so much funny.

You know, I’m not usually a huge fan of stories based on misunderstanding and miscommunication, but in this case the story flowed so well I wasn’t bothered from the lacking of clarity, most of all because I really couldn’t blame Robert for being scared to share his past. It was so destructive enough for him to bring him to transfer in the new village of Shamwell. It made him more insecure in his love life and when he meets Sean, he is soon worried to not be enough for the bisexual man.

What about the pest control technician? Well first of all I have a thing for red hair, so I was a goner for Sean from the start. And for the little twins too, cute as much as trouble makers. Sean is a really good person, loyal in his love and so caring versus his sick sister, he lives with her to helping with his twin nephews. I loved how he was with Robert, so open and understanding with the formal teacher and so in love with his bow ties.

“I haven’t got any condoms!” I blurted out. Mortified, I clapped a hand over my mouth. I could almost feel the breeze of the stable door slamming shut as the horse flicked its tail in contempt and cantered merrily down the street.

Sean was laughing at me. “Okay, unexpected but to the point. I like that in a bloke.”

Oh God. “I mean, I thought… Just in case we… Not that I was making any presumptions, that would be, um, presumptuous. And I wouldn’t want to, well, presume…”

A rough-skinned hand stroked my face. It was blessedly cool against my heated skin. “Got it. No presuming. Wouldn’t dream of it. You know. Presuming you’d presumed.”

“You must think I’m utterly ridiculous.”

He laughed again. “Well, I wouldn’t say utterly.”

The story is full of funny moments, some cute and some unbelievable too. It was a light read but there were a lot of things going on at the same times (I don’t want to spoiler), which didn’t make the book confusing, just more relevant, poignant.
Of course I still had to use Google for a couple of things sometimes but it was so worth it. My relationship with JL is just a love story now!

Cover art by Kanaxa. I simply love this cover! It’s exactly how I imagined Robert, his expression, his clothes. Well done.

Sales Links:  Samhain Publishing – All Romance (ARe) – Amazon Buy It Here

BOOK DETAILS

Published August 19th 2014 by Samhain Publishing, Ltd.
Kindle Edition, 276 pages
ASIN B00K1WUBG0
Edition language English

The Shamwell Tales series
Caught! #1
Played! #2

 

Barb, A Zany Old Lady Review: Wedding Favors (A Bluewater Bay story, #7) by Anne Tenino

  • BWBlogo_WebRating: 5 stars out of 5

WeddingFavors_1200x1800HR-1Twelve years ago, Gabe Savage let his best friend’s brother get away. In fact, he encouraged him to leave Bluewater Bay by breaking off with him before they even got started, because he knew the artist within Lucas Wilder would never have a chance to fully develop if he stayed in this small backwoods town. Now, Gabe wants him back, and unknown to Lucas, this Gabe has all the patience in the world. All he has to do is treat Lucas like a skittish colt and wait for him to see that they belong together.

In the meantime, Lucas comes back to Bluewater Bay only because his best friend, Audrey, is marrying his brother—a fact he is shocked to learn. He’s to be her Man of Honor, and once the shock wears off, he packs up and heads north. Then he learns that Gabe Savage, that sexy redhead with the body of a real man, is going to be the Best Man, and he wants to run back to California.

Lucas has recently broken up with his partner, and since they not only owned a home together, but Lucas sold most of his artwork in his partner’s gallery, Lucas feels alone and adrift, unable to decide where to relocate so that he can pursue his art. Bluewater Bay is the last place he’d want to settle, but Audrey actually does him a favor by dragging him home. It’s not until she coerces Lucas into sculpting favors for her wedding, and she suggests that he can set up a studio at Gabe’s tree farm, that Lucas starts to suspect that there may be a master plan in place.

Gabe had never really believed that Lucas would return to town, but now that he has, he’s willing to go along with Audrey and her fiancé Zach and provide the space for Lucas. There’s certainly a better chance that he’ll have the opportunity to explain that he never meant to break Lucas’s heart all those years ago; at least, he hopes he can get the chance. He does get that chance, and eventually more, and the two pick up where they left off and go much further than either expected. Both men have matured, and Gabe is the macho, big, sweaty male that Lucas finds extremely hot and dominating in their relationship. Lucas is the kinky, sexy, subservient guy of Gabe’s dreams. But neither has learned to truly communicate their feelings, and they seem headed to disaster as the wedding approaches, and Lucas prepares to leave.

This one is my favorite in the Bluewater Bay series, so far. It amazes me that so many wonderful authors have come together to create this series in which each book is distinctive, yet fits in the series, often has overlapping characters, yet brings its own unique and interesting story to light. Anne Tenino has done an outstanding job with this one. There’s some angst and heartache for both men as they work through their past and show fear for their future. But there’s also humor, amazing secondary characters (Lucas’s father and his pot-growing operation for one), and there’s hope, romance and an emotional journey that brings them to deep and abiding love.

A super story! This can easily be read as a standalone as there’s little overlap with characters from other books. It’s for all those who enjoy reading about reunited lovers, hairy, sexy outdoorsmen, artists who see the beauty all around them, and just simply for all lovers of M/M romance. Don’t hesitate to pick this up.
~~~~
Cover design by LC Chase depicts two handsome young men—one dressed casually, one as a rugged outdoorsman—superimposed on a background of a barn and rural scenery. This photo matches both the MC’s and the story content perfectly.

Sales Links:  Riptide Publishing –  All Romance (ARe) – Amazon   Buy It Here

Book Details:

ebook, 325 pages
Published April 13th 2015 by Riptide Publishing (first published April 11th 2015)
original titleWedding Favors
ISBN139781626492929
edition languageEnglish
seriesBluewater Bay #7
charactersLucas Wilder, Gabriel Savage

Bluewater Bay Universe….WolfsLanding_transparent

Welcome to Bluewater Bay! This quiet little logging town on Washington state’s Olympic Peninsula has been stagnating for decades, on the verge of ghost town status. Until a television crew moves in to film Wolf’s Landing, a soon-to-be cult hit based on the wildly successful shifter novels penned by local author Hunter Easton.

Wolf’s Landing’s success spawns everything from merchandise to movie talks, and Bluewater Bay explodes into a mecca for fans and tourists alike. The locals still aren’t quite sure what to make of all this—the town is rejuvenated, but at what cost? And the Hollywood-based production crew is out of their element in this small, mossy seaside locale. Needless to say, sparks fly.

This collaborative story world is brought to you by eleven award-winning, best-selling LGBTQ romance authors: L.A. Witt, L.B. Gregg, Z.A. Maxfield, Aleksandr Voinov, Heidi Belleau, Rachel Haimowitz, Anne Tenino, Amy Lane, SE Jakes, G.B. Gordon, and Jaime Samms. Each contemporary novel stands alone, but all are built around the town and the people of Bluewater Bay and the Wolf’s Landing media empire.

Books in this Universe include with links to our reviews:

 

 

A Paul B Review: Rock Star Baby (Bad Oak Boys #1) by Erin M. Leaf

 

Rating: 5 stars out of 5:

rock star baby coverFaylen Forst wins a contest to kiss a member of the band Bad Oak. However, her Alpha father forbids her to go since she is only sixteen. She instead sends her brother, Alpha-Heir Bardulf. Little do they know that this would begin something momentous in their world.

Bardulf Forst is Alpha-Heir to his pack. His younger sister Faylen informs him that she has submitted his name as her substitute after she wins a fan club contest for the band Bad Oak. The winner is supposed to kiss one of the members of the band backstage after the concert in New York City. She also says that her brother needs to get out and find his mate. Bardulf counters that is would be unlikely for a gay werewolf to find his mate at a rock concert.

Ryan Oakley is the lead singer of the band Bad Oak. As part of the concert tour, a member of the band kisses a fan selected by a contest from the local fan club. He is taken aback when the winner of the contest decides to send her older brother when her father forbids her to go. When he comments to a fellow band member, he is reminded that Ryan insisted that it be an equal opportunity contest and that he had a lot of gay fans. Resigned, Ryan agrees to meet the brother.

On the way to the concert, Bardulf comes to the conclusion that he should just go to the concert and let the band member off the hook when it comes to the kiss. When he meets Ryan backstage, the attraction is instant on both of their parts. What is supposed to be a kiss quickly turns into a backstage tryst. Bardulf also realizes that Ryan is in fact his mate. He wonders how the mate of the Alpha-Heir can be human.

As the romance develops, things for both Bardulf and Ryan are not what they seem. It appears that Ryan is not quite all human as Bardulf suspects. Also, his father the alpha is acting even more irrationally than he has been in the past. This is especially true when he discovers that Bardulf has discovered his mate. Bardulf must find out what is causing his father’s strange behavior while finding time to spend with his rock star mate. To add complications to all of this, Bardulf has become ill. And he must get ready for the Wolf Council meeting that will be selecting the new North American leader. Will he be able to survive all the changes in his life?

I highly enjoyed this first book of the Bad Oak Boys series. The author has provided some new angles into the usual paranormal genre. While most of the male pregnancy stories center around either an alpha/omega or alien/human encounter, Ms. Leaf has centered hers around two strong alpha males (one the alpha-heir, the other the lead singer of a rock band) and makes that difference a key in the plot development. As the other members of Ryan’s band are family members, the author has left herself plenty of room to expand this entertaining new series.

The cover art by Jay Aheer accurately reflects the story. In the background, you have a shirtless Bardulf standing next to Ryan playing guitar. In the foreground you have a white wolf of one of the characters. It is a well done cover.

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

Book Details
Ebook, 150 pages
Published: March 12, 2015 by Evernight Publishing
ISBN: 978-1-77233-277-3
Edition: English
Series: Bad Oak Boys
Rock Star Baby (Bad Oak Boys #1)

A BJ Review: Fidelity by Lia Black

Rating:  5 stars out of 5

How far can a man go in the name of faith?

Fidelity cover

While most of his order choose a female, Father Gareth De’Aubyn chose the handsome Fidelity as his guardian and fell in love with his angel during his prayers. When he leaves the Crusaders to minister to the very people his armies once threatened, his beloved angel falls from the Heavens in his search for him. Soon Gareth finds himself at death’s door and calls to the Creator for aide in protecting his flock. But its Fydelis, no longer an angel but now the demonic aspect of regret and toy of the Sunderer, who comes to his rescue. In exchange for help, Gareth must promise his soul to the Sunderer, god of the underworld. Bargain made, its Fydelis who must lead his love, the man he thought had abandoned him, on his task of collecting twenty strong and stubborn souls. Their journey together tests everything they thought they knew about faith, love, and fidelity.

Well-written with excellent pacing, this story had me enthralled from the gripping first scene onward. Being that I was quite swamped in real life when I read this, I didn’t breeze through it as I most assuredly would have if I’d had time. On retrospect, I actually don’t regret that. It allowed me to savor the story, and cuddle these lovely broken guys in my mind over a matter of days rather than hours. And this is a story well-worth savoring, let me tell you!

If you enjoy dark stories about broken boys, like I do, my advice is… read this book right now. There isn’t just one but two deliciously damaged men here, broken at the start and falling to pieces all along the journey’s way. Two men both in love, both thinking they’d been abandoned by the other, now united on the lurid task set before them, one knowing who the other is, one in the dark.

Usually early on in a good story, I’m locked into one of the characters so much that my heart bleeds and breaks for him, this is that times two. I’d be hard pressed to say which of these guys touched me more. Gareth who wants so much to help others and do what he thinks is right that he even scourges his back to keep himself from having impure urges; or Fydelis who has suffered so much at the hands of the gruesome Sunderer.

Dark and not for the faint-hearted, one particular scene at the beginning took my breath away with its grisly, shocking cruelty. But amidst the bloody battle scenes, there is humor, small joys, and sweet tenderness. Amidst the dismantling, we are put back together. The ride to get there is gut-wrenching, heartbreaking, and painful to read at parts. And I bloody well loved it. All of it.

From the first book I read by this author, I was hooked. She’s now firmly one of my two favorite m/m authors. I’d be hard pressed to choose between Black and Lanyon. But Lia Black somehow (by magic?) looks into my head and heart and gives me what I love, pushes my buttons, presses my boundaries, and does it every single time.

The cover is a stunner, just gorgeous. From the seal of the order, the stern and righteous Gareth in his armor with sword, Fydelis as a young long haired human and the wings in the background… its just absolutely perfect. Bravo!

Sales Link:  Amazon  Buy It Here

Book Details:

Kindle Edition, 213 pages
Published May 1st 2015 by VineDark/ BlackHouse Press
ASINB00W4BS5R8
edition languageEnglish