B.A. Tortuga writes a whole group of books I fondly call her cowboy n’ kids stories. They contain usually a cowboy, maybe two, one’s possibly a rodeo man. One or both with a loose connection to a passel of kids or just one in need of a family.
Throw in some adorable animals, wide open spaces out West to serve as a background for a simmering passion between these men and path to love for each other and, boom, you have the main elements for this heartwarming and sweet bunch of romances.
Of which Cowboy’s Law is one. One I really loved. As I do just about all of these books.
Found families is a trope that’s a top five favorite genre. This author excels at this.
Her knowledge of cowboys, that hard scrabble ranch lifestyle and rodeoing is almost cellular at this point. As is her vernacular. Her dialogue is so spot on, so localized to the area, and type of people it helps the book sing with life.
Same goes for the small town lifestyle of Friday night high school football, band dad’s jobs, and near constant family schedule demands. Of 4H, dance class, homework, and home chores. The tears, the laughter, the Wonder Woman bandaids, and the love that holds everything and everyone together.
There’s nothing about this book, from the kids to the weary men that reads anything less than flat out real and downright human.
Tortuga even covers the injured soldier here in Low and friends. Another group she pulls in and understands so well. The mixture of the cowboy and vet is perfect and their romance and path to love and family is a story you will want to read.
I don’t know if BA is figuring on giving Hunter his own story but I hope so. He too deserves a HEA. As does Win and Moose.
Meanwhile, if you love found families, cowboys and weary ex soldiers looking for love, you look no further then Cowboy’s Law.
I’m definitely recommending it.
Synopsis:
When rodeo cowboy Seth’s best friend dies unexpectedly from cancer, he finds himself taking on a ranch and a bunch of his friend’s younger siblings, because they have nowhere else to turn. Seth loves those kids like they’re his own, and he settles in well to his new life, which is why he’s pretty wary when his buddy’s older brother finally makes it home from a long stint in the military.
Law knows he might get a chilly reception at his brother Pistol’s old ranch, even if the kids living there are his half-siblings. He didn’t make it to his brother’s funeral, after all, but to his credit, he was blown up trying to come home to do just that. He’s fighting injuries and insecurity, but when Seth welcomes him to the family ranch, Law knows he’s pretty much in love. Even if he thinks Seth was his brother’s lover. Can these two find a way to let their emotions out before tragedy strikes their family again?
Not every 5 star read has to be deeply complicated or filled to the brim with characters in need of therapy.
Nopes. Sometimes you’re gifted with a 5 star ticket joy ride of an adventure journey, full of snappy on point dialog, charismatic characters to die for and full out sexy magical fun.
Yeah I needed that so bad.
I want to see it filmed, I want it in a RPG, and I’m Garen btw. I just want this anyway I can have it. And it’s book one in a series with the first story wrapping up it’s own storyline while clearly setting up a potential mystery and danger to come.
For those of us who devour fantasy, supernatural, sci-fy, anything of a mysterious and suspenseful albeit magical nature, certain elements will be telegraphing the hell out of this to you.
Wonderfully so. Much like Wicky and Nico with their light sabers! It’s wicked fun. We sort of know where the bad guys might be coṃing from but who cares! Bring them on! Our guys got this!
Plus that triad of Bel & Nico & Garen? Hot, Hot, Hot! Even if you’re not into ménage or poly relationships or even age gap romances, Sherwood has managed to make this one absolutely realistic in terms of who these men are, who they have been to each other, and how their dynamics actually complete each other in every way.
All while Sherwood uses this remarkable romance and bonding to further the adventurous, magical and wildly anticipatory tale she’s crafting along with Bel’s team. That will include the amazing Chadwick “Wicky” Santos’s, Fire Mage and his partner, Zia Garzon, rounder mage.
Each mission Bel gets called on is used to explore his background, reveal more of his talents and emerging personality. We also get the same for everyone along as part of the temporary team by mission element going on at first.
As Nico and Garen come into Bel’s world and understand not only that they work well with other MAD operatives like Wicky and Matt, they are happy and belong. To Bel. As well as once again to each other.
There’s just so many fun beings (love Grandpa, just sayin’) to meet and plain hilarious outstanding stuff here. I just curled up , grabbed a bowl of popcorn, and happily read into the night, not stopping until the book was done.
There’s a satisfying ending that sets up our guys and team with , if you’re like me who has a sneaking suspicion or three, a bad guy on the horizon and a new fight on their hands.
I can’t wait. They got this. It will be so much fun. And Grandpa has to bring back the hellhounds, right?
My happy anticipation is high!
Yes! You in need of something to make you laugh? Smile? Shake your head at characters antics and revel in their joy… at kicking ass? Love spot on dialogue?
One mage, Bel Adams – needs a familiar, gun shy about being rejected by one again.
One familiar, Nico di Rossi – Army Ranger, needs a change of pace and a new purpose in life.
Plus one familiar, Garen Adan – Secret Service, needs his ex-lover Nico back.
One second chance – all for the taking.
Tags:
Mages, BOGO familiar, familiars as bodyguards, familiar bond, M/M/M, second chances, workplace romance, fated mates, magical shenanigans, Garen is part gargoyle, Bel part demon, Nico is a golden retriever in human form (though not literally), idiots in love, seriously I don’t know what to do with them, Bel loves Garen just because he wants to love him, possessive behavior, not a single degree of chill from any of them, Nico is not allowed caffeine, Nico loves swords, Wicky is his supplier, lightsaber sounds, competency kink, Garen cannot be moved, he moves when he wants to, evil cults strangely don’t clean up after themselves, absolutely no one’s surprised, Nico thinks a magically booby-trapped cave is a theme park, cuz he cray cray, Demon Grandpa is also cray cray and approve.
I’ve been thinking about this book, it’s elements, and my review.
Why? Because it contains that one element guaranteed to bring me back to a basic argument I have, as a reviewer and for myself as a reader. Simply put, it is how do I feel about the cliffhanger?
Yes, Tide of Tricks, book 2 of Shadows of London, a fantastic tale of magic and mystery, has the most outrageous of all cliffhangers and THE key series/story revelation all at the same moment. Right at the end of the story! DO NOT READ the ending first. You won’t even understand it anyway.
This is a heartbreaking, mindblast of a problem for several reasons, at least for me. I trust it will be for you all as well.
And I can tell you , if we were talking over tea or coffee? The expletives would be flying!
So let me dive into the why this cliffhanger is going to be so mind boggling awful.
It starts with Ariana Nash’s character of John “Dom” Domenici. His character, his personality and background is so densely layered, like a “bloom in’ onion’ as it were. The author has crafted Dom’s past with bagged filled hidden years that get revealed only through times of immense stress or threatened violence, that the reader and his associates never know what’s coming. Dom is a man who’s means of escaping his crime-filled East End childhood was to join the Army. That also turned out to be something far more torturous and disturbing (I’ll leave that to the book). Tragically from his start in Pretty Twisted Things , we now watch a man we’ve come to greatly care about, slowly destabilize. With devastating results. And someone has planned this.
Nash has written a terrifying authentic example of a man being driven almost to the brink by forces unknown. We will feel every bit as helpless as Dom is to stop the events around him.
The people who work with him who we “think” care for him realize the dangers but there’s multiple targets. No one knows who’s the mastermind. And those who are acting on the mastermind’s orders?
A shock or two there.
This is a veritable Minotaur’s labyrinth of a plot and series arc. Bodies are falling, shadows are everywhere, magical objects of destruction of appearing all over London to destabilize people like Dom, and revelations about the primary characters start to pop like narrative gun fire. Nothing can be counted on except that everyone is in danger. And we have no real idea who everyone truly is.
Cliffhanger. In a beautifully written, outstandingly executed and almost flawless book.
Second stories are almost always a bridge book. They carry the plot and characters safely over from the foundation novel to the third book, which might be the end or even penultimate story in the series. Here Nash not only shoots out the lanterns our characters are carrying to light the way across the bridge but Nash is stranding them there before they reach the end. The bridge is going to break and all is darkness.
The third book in the series? Trial by Fire? Doesn’t come out until next May 2022. Ffs. Yup. Next year.
So back to my ongoing dilemma. When it comes to series and cliffhangers, do you (if given advance notice, clearly not here) wait until you have the entire series and read right through?
Or do what I’ve done, repeatedly, give in and read the book 1 in series after series, hopefully not to see a cliffhanger, and just go with it.
Knowing full well that come next May I’ll have to reread books 1 & 2 before diving back into this series, because the author has made it just that involved and convoluted. My mind will just not be able to hold onto all the details of this arc and plot and multiple characters until May 2022.
Sigh. It’s a old argument. I’ll probably still plow onwards. This author has me so hooked it’s unreal.
So yes… absolutely read this book and series. You decide when. If you want to wait until the series is complete, then read all the stories go for it. Read them as they come, waiting along with me? Ok we’ll suffer together.
Either way, put it on your TBR list. I’m highly recommending it.
Shadows of London series:
◦ Twisted Pretty Things #1
◦ Tide of Tricks #2
◦ Trial by Fire #3- coming May 31st, 2022 argh! The wait will kill me!
Reeling from recent revelations and forced to lie for Kempthorne, the unthinkable happens: Dom fails the latent competency test. One more strike and he’ll be deemed unstable, have his registration stripped, and the life he’s come to love at Kempthorne & Co will be over.
If that weren’t bad enough, someone is stalking him, taunting him. Someone who knows what Dom did all those years ago.
While Dom juggles Kempthorne’s lies and his own shady past, latents are being murdered. The police won’t help, so it’s up to Dom, Kempthorne & new-recruit Kage (Hollywood) to find the killer, before they strike too close to home.
Dom soon finds himself at the heart of it all with his control slipping, his trick breaking free, and the shadows rising.
He’s coming undone. And for unstable latents, there’s only one way out…..
Please note, this is an adult urban fantasy, so there are multiple swears, some darker themes and scenes, and on-page sex.
I have long needed another urban fantasy author (can never have too many) and now I have one. And a great new series to boot!
I stumbled upon Ariana Nash when I found this urban fantasy story, Twisted Pretty Things. It’s the first book in her Shadows of London series and it’s a grand adventure and showstopper of a stage to a series.
It has a overall series arc of maze like proportions, continually looping back onto itself, then threading through the most obscure of narrative keyholes to keep the reader’s mind throughly boggled and trying to see where this intriguing plot and deeply layered characters will lead us next.
Ah these insanely wonderful characters. All smoke and mirrors, deceptions laid upon deceptively clever and devious personalities. Just when you think you have one completely figured out, wham, there’s a complete turnaround in what you perceive in character.
I love that. Pull that emotional rug out from all of us repeatedly.
All it does is deepen our connection in an odd empathetic way to the people in front of us instead of pushing us away. We need to know more about these obviously tormented individuals and the paths that brought them here.
And the horrors that are about to come. For they are indeed coming.
All the main characters such as the cockney born John “Dom” Domenici who now, through a convoluted journey, to his boss he works for , the elegant, wealthy Alexander Kempthorne , everyone here is fascinating and evolving.
The company, Kempthorne & Co, the main jobs revolve around retrieving magical objects imbued with dangerous powers. However, nothing is even that simple, as serious as it seems.
This story is steeped in British history and culture, including some of its most brutal and painful historical eras.
The author’s talent in using just a few phrases to telegraph something wordlessly barbaric is incredible. It’s used here to great emotional impact over and over.
The characters need to be read to be appreciated. Their growth, the revelations that are sprung on you as a reader cannot be put into a review yet it’s so much a part of them and this increasingly fantastic urban fantasy tale of romance and a fight for survival.
But against what?
That’s what’s coṃing…..
I was up late finishing this story and immediately grabbed up the next in the series. It’s plain addictive.
I can see several sleepless nights ahead.
I’m absolutely recommending this author and stories.
Start here! It’s a must read!
Synopsis:
Something wicked is moving in the shadows of London…
In the underground world of glitzy illegal auctions, fast cars, and stolen magical artifacts, John “Dom” Domenici knows he’s out of his depth. But he needs the job at Kempthorne & Co like he needs to breathe. The alternative—going back to the organized crime gangs of London’s East End—is unthinkable.
So when Alexander Kempthorne, boss of Kempthorne & Co Artifact Retrieval Agency, wants him on a special case to track down an illegal artifact dealer, Dom can’t say no.
It shouldn’t matter that Kempthorne’s world is full of deadly secrets. It shouldn’t matter that the billionaire is sexy as sin, and it really shouldn’t matter how there’s an American agent stalking Dom, an American who knows more than he should about Dom’s case, including the real reason Alexander Kempthorne hired Dom.
The only thing that really matters to Dom is solving the case and finding the artifact dealer. Because there are worse things in London than a conflicted billionaire and a trigger-happy American. Something wicked is stalking London’s streets, and if Dom doesn’t stop it, its shadows will rise and consume them all.
***
Twisted Pretty Things is the first book in the all-new Shadows of London MM urban fantasy series. Action, mystery, and MM romance combine in this fast-paced adventure from the author who brought you the award-winning Silk & Steel series and the best-selling Prince’s Assassin series. Coming August 2021.
Triggering content: mention of past mental and physical abuse.
Please note the Shadows of London series is set in London and the characters are all British (so is the author). Although the series has been edited in US English for the larger US market, to include US spelling and grammar, many English slang words and spelling remain as part of the character of the work
Shadows of London series:
◦ Twisted Pretty Things #1
◦ Tide of Tricks #2
◦ Trial by Fire #3- coming May 31st, 2022 argh! The wait will kill me!
I have enjoyed this series immensely. Which is why I’m so surprised and puzzled over the characters and storylines of The Wrangler and the Orphan , the 4th in the Farthingdale Ranch series.
Unlike the others, this book has some major elements and characters which unfortunately didn’t work for me and in cases actually, had me thinking of cautionary flags.
And it starts right with the main characters. And their dysfunctional backgrounds as well as current histories.
The characters…..
🌈Kit Foster. Abandoned teen, last enrollment and safe structure was middle school, regularly beaten as well as emotionally traumatized by his mother and her endless line
of temporary “boyfriends” to the point that’s Kit’s normality.
His mother repeatedly moves him, eliminating any support or security other than her, who again abandons him after stealing money from her latest target and taking off to Las Vegas.
So basically, Kit is a mass of Insecurities , unable to trust, a scared kid of scarred body and young unformed abused mind. Without even an abusive mother to hold onto, he’s desperation personified.
Worse, Kit has just escaped ,after being severely beaten by bar owner Eddie Piggot, and imprisoned in the bar’s basement. He’s got Victim written all over him.
He’s rescued by Brody, the ranch’s wrangler.
That would be…..
🌈Brody Calhoun, almost 30. Ranch Wrangler. Son of an abusive father who whipped , beat and starved him. Ran away with a older carny man, still suffers PTSD from his upbringing, nightmares which he treats with CBD oil. Which is fine except it would get him fired and the ranch in trouble if found. So he’s not exactly dealing well with his own past.
Brody never got the real help for the issues his brutal adolescent and background still causes him but looses himself in training horses for the ranch. And self medicating when necessary when the past catches up, including his nightmares.
Brody’s rescuer , the man who took him away from his abusive father, also works with him. His history is never far away.
He sees himself in Kit. And wants to take care of him? Finds the teen attractive in his totally needy, abused way? Everything about this , including keeping it a secret that Kit’s even at the ranch at the beginning starts the questions popping up in my mind about the relationship and storyline.
Kit is regularly referred to a “kid” and acts like one. Although it’s made a point that’s he’s of “legal age”, nothing in this story, from the descriptions to his behavior will ever be anything that resembles something close to an adult. Instead Kit just presents as a somewhat broken, utterly youthful ,uneducated if eager youngster. One in desperate need of therapy and stability.
What he gets a older man who’s been as much if not more abused than he was, who decides how to fix and take care of the kid. Not as a family but as a lover. Hmmmm.
One of Kit’s few happy memories of one of his mother’s temporary boyfriend was a cowboy, a bronc rider. Now Kit is rescued by a cowboy. Can we say transference? Kit’s now isolated on a ranch, with someone who just rescued him, who “glows hero”, but not once does anyone mention what specifically Kit has undergone or that he needs therapy to understand just what his past history has done so he can better understand the choices made going forward.
Things just continue to add up, and not in an enjoyable way.
The author uses terms such as “kid, scared kid, scared foal, young animal, torn sneakers, skittish” over and over , adjectives used to describe very young people or animals when referring to Kit. These are not words I’d choose when applied towards adults or anyone of legal age.
Example of elements I found problematic. One scene that threw up a big question for me. Brody turns grooming a horse into a sexual/comfort effort after Kit ends up in a fetal position just from enforcing close proximity to a horse. FYI Kit’s informed Brody he’s terrified of horses.
The author/Brody says he’s soothing him like he would a skittish young animal. Hmm. Putting your arms around him and your groin up to his ass while someone is in a fragile emotional state? I know what I call that outside of this novel. Taking advantage of someone in a shaky state. Maybe something harsher.
Also there’s that weird element that the ranch hands refer to Kit as a orphan and he tells them he’s not. Truth. You may not like that he’s got an abusive mother but that’s downright odd denying someone’s truth.
Where during the rest of the story Kit is still making impulsive “young “ decisions based on his abusive upbringing….because you’d expect a teenager to at this point. He’s still new to the situation and people.
But why is the author not addressing this ?
Kit’s damage from his mother and upbringing doesn’t disappear nor should it. Brody‘s scars are inward as well as laid across his skin. So why is there no real acknowledgment that healing for something of that pain and depth is more than to “cowboy up” and a quick romance.
By the end Brody takes” the place of his mother in Kit’s eyes . Kit’s words🤦🏼♀️. In the epilogue, Kit is comparing his life he had with Katey(his mother) versus the life he has now with Brody, how ones so stable. SMH.
As readers how are we supposed to feel about this? In another age gap novel I just finished, where the gap between lovers was larger, the author used other characters as stand-in’s for readers perspectives who might feel uncomfortable, voicing various opinions. Allowing us to think about the pros and cons of such a romance through multiple characters.
But also those characters weren’t damaged and knew fully who were supporting them.
Here, we are supposed to connect with a brutalized teenager and a damaged man, both of whom need help to deal with their traumatic memories and childhoods. But instead dive immediately into a romance.
For this reader? Doesn’t feel healthy.
Several times this came close to a DNF as it was just an uncomfortable read. Trust me, not the age gap but the characters, their issues as well as their ages. It was everything here I found challenging.
It was odd because it felt as though this did not fit in among the other stories.
And as such, I just can’t recommend it.
Synopsis:
Some scars run soul-deep. Some scars only love can heal.”
Brody is the wrangler at Farthingdale Ranch. He knows a lot about horses, but not a whole lot about people.
He is so broken, he cannot imagine anyone would want to love him. Then along comes Kit, a young man in need of shelter, searching for a forever home.
In Kit, Brody sees the scared young man he used to be. In caring for Kit, Brody is in over his head.
But as Brody makes room in his heart for Kit, both their lives begin to change.
A gay m/m cowboy romance with hurt/comfort, rescue, age gap, fish out of water, opposites attract, midnight rendezvous. A little sweet, a little steamy, with a guaranteed HEA
Two of the most complicated men and one of V.L.Locey’s most deeply complex couples is that of the Arou-Kalinski hockey romance. It’s now spanned two , maybe more series, as these characters are too large, too dynamic to be contained within just one series.
They also required their own short series to see their family together facing emotional battles and physical struggles. Rebound was Victor’s book. Final Shot is Dan’s story.
While it seems that the issues stems from Dan’s injuries, his growing dependency on opioids, and his addiction, the strength of the story much like that of the couple’s relationship comes from the fact that it’s still very much a Dan and Vic love story.
They don’t work without each other. Whether it’s facing the enormity of addiction, the battles of withdrawal, the fears of admitting that you’re an addict to yourself, family, friends and organization, that your grounding, your support is always there is evidenced here by this couple in every way.
It was with Vic’s alcohol abuse, and now with Dan’s opioid addiction. The struggles with their injuries and daily pain is portrayed realistically and heartfelt.
The other heart rendered elements, that of their son Jackie Blue, a genderqueer teen who went to live with his mother and her new husband, is painfully on point for these times.
That it’s layered on top of issues already needing to be dealt with seems about right as well. Things have a way of doing that. Complications always seem to pile up, not the other way around. No matter how much we wish it would.
Locey has written an amazing story of addiction, bullying, loss, recovery, family, and love.
It’s really remarkable. As is the Arou-Kalinski family at its heart.
You don’t need to have read the other series to appreciate this one, though it helps.
Read the Overtime series in the order it’s written. You’re going to love each and every book.
Synopsis
Sometimes family is the light that leads you through the darkest parts of life.
Living the dream. That’s been Dan Arou-Kalinski’s life for the past ten years. That life hasn’t always been an easy one though. Dan has worked hard to get where he is and has faced some major obstacles on his road to success. It’s not always been a rose garden being married to Victor, but his love for his sometimes thorny husband has no bounds. His career has given him years of great success, memories, and championship rings. Yes, fate has been kind to Dan Arou-Kalinski for quite a long time. Looks like destiny is about to start calling in some markers.
The paybacks come due when a recurring health issue turns into a life or death situation and threatens to take him out of the game he loves permanently. Then there’s Victor’s son Jack, a proud and out nonbinary preteen who is living a daily nightmare in a small southern town. Juggling two major life issues is taking its toll on him, and just when he thinks he’s found the path out of the woods, Dan will face an unexpected and devastating loss that will require all three of the Kalinski men to pull together to help each other through the dark times
This is just an adorable holiday hockey romance with just the right touch of nerd romance.
We have gamers, a cute ferret, a cuddly florist in his forties yearning for love, and a outright gorgeous younger hockey player who just so happens to be playing the online RPG game our florist is.
It’s Valentine’s Day, and a team event that suddenly is in need of arrangements. Voila! Meet cute and a sweet and engaging story that follows.
It’s short and definitely a HFN but you can see them gaming happily into the future. They are a sweet and absolutely compatible couple.
I could wish for a sequel and another holiday with this couple in mind. Need a quick sweet romance?
Check this out. It’s lovely.
Synopsis:
Is it possible that the soft smile and furtive looks from Bailey are flirtatious, or is Hadley just living in a floral fantasy world?
It was supposed to be just another day in the life of Hadley Burton.
Wake up alone, go to work at his flower shop, go home, eat a frozen dinner, play his favorite online fantasy game, go to bed. Alone. So when his shop gets a frantic call from a harried guy from the Albany Beavers hockey team, looking for flowers for the annual Mother’s Trip wrap-up dinner, he’s stunned and thrilled. Working like a madman, Hadley and his lone employee burn the midnight oil and arrive at the arena just in time to place the centerpieces and meet a few of the players.
Thinking that this business boon was the best thing that could happen to him, he’s not at all ready to run into Bailey Rust, the considerably younger phenom forward of the Beavers. Nor is he prepared to discover that Bailey is a huge gamer and is the prettiest thing he has seen in years. After an hour spent talking gaming, the two go their separate ways. Until Bailey shows up at the flower shop the next day. And the day after that. And the day after that
Soft Place to Fall is a heartbreaker of a book. Full of a broken partnership , a past of broken dreams and broken promises, and a mother who is being shattered by that most Insidious of diseases, Alzheimer’s, this story is one guaranteed to have you sobbing.
Often.
It’s so well written that the pain and sheer exhaustion pouring off Stetson Major as he’s watching his mama rapidly decline tears at you. You feel every bit of his feelings and the fact that there’s very little left for Stetson to give, he’s done in.
That’s where the call goes out to his ex partner, the man his mama is calling for, to please come. And rodeo rider Curtis Traynor does.
What a story. One of reconciliations, of loss, grief, forgiveness, love, and the journey back to home and each other.
The men are strong characters and you absolutely feel the incredible loving pull they have for each other. It’s also easy to see how, in their youth, their stubbornness and goals drove them apart.
The woman dying of Alzheimer’s is difficult element as she’s so realistically portrayed. Muddled one moment, clear headed another, and then wild, anger filled, and needing to be restrained the next. If you haven’t experienced this, count yourself lucky. It’s often a very hard read. As it should be.
That’s balanced by the two men now , years later, still as deeply in love as they ever were, picking their way back to each other over obstacles still strewn across the path as it was years ago.
I was so emotionally connected to these men and their romance I didn’t even notice the pages flying by.
The only thing that kept this from an absolute 5 star rating was that I thought it wrapped up too quickly for everything that had gone on before.
I was still happy for them and us at the end.
If you love cowboys and want a heartwarming love story, look no further. Grab up Soft Place To Fall and a box or two of tissues and settle in for a marvelous read.
It’s one I highly recommend.
Synopsis:
Stetson Major and Curtis Traynor are about as opposite as two cowboys can get. Stetson is a rancher, tied to the land he loves in Taos, New Mexico, while Curtis is a rodeo cowboy whose wanderlust never could be tamed. But now Stetson’s momma is dying of Alzheimer’s, and she can’t remember that Curtis hasn’t been Stetson’s boyfriend for a long time. Curtis’s absence makes her cry, so Stetson swallows his pride and calls his ex-lover. To Curtis, Stetson is the one who got away, the love of his life. And Momma is his friend, so he’s happy to help out. Yet returning to the ranch stirs up all sorts of feelings that, while buried, never really went away. Still, the rodeo nationals are coming up, and Curtis can’t stay—even if he’s starting to want to, especially to support Stetson when he needs it most. Stetson and Curtis want to find a place where they both fit, to be there to catch each other when they fall. But family, money problems, and the call of the rodeo circuit might end their second-chance romance before it even gets started.
Kris Xappa’s getting ready to make his post season retirement announcement. On top of that, there’s the eminent launch of the charity youth foundation, Forward Thinking, he started with his two long time best friends but nothing is going according to plans.
In trying to stop a fight at a friends bar, Kris comes off looking like the instigator in a vid someone posted to a media account that went viral. That’s had a huge negative effect on every part of his life.
Additionally , there’s his teammate, Rory Stanton ,who’s also the younger brother of his best friend. Rory is injured and and in need of his assistance.
What more could go wrong? Ah yes, mutual attraction and Kris ‘s sexuality which has always been identified as “straight “ to his fans and team.
Once more Aislin has given us complicated men in hockey, off the wall chemistry, a great story, and a romance to sigh over.
Hockey romances are my jam and Aislin’s Stick Side series is just one amazing book after another. Each managing to loosely connect the characters and their stories to each other’s by their teams and struggles with their sexuality and battles to navigate homophobia within and without their sport.
Each character is layered, individualist, and nuanced. From the main couple to everyone who supports them, all feel believable and relatable.
When Kris is feeling the intensity of the exposure from the media and the unfairness of the slights against his character, which he’s not allowed to push back against, it’s such a real situation that the reader feels absolutely in his corner.
Everything in the book will connect you to these men and their journey towards love and happiness.
It’s a pleasure to join them on the road to HEA and whatever their future may hold. Have i said how much I adore this series?
NHL team look bad. Now, with orders to keep his head down, the last thing he needs is to develop feelings for his younger teammate—and best friend’s brother. The fact that he can’t stop thinking about their one illicit kiss doesn’t mean anything.
Rory Stanton is perfectly capable of taking care of himself and doesn’t need his brother’s best friend keeping an eye on him. Sure, he likes having Kris’s attention, but he’d rather have it for entirely different reasons. Too bad that one kiss they shared wasn’t enough to convince Kris to take a chance on him.
When an injury lands Rory in Kris’s care, will these teammates be able to see past the obstacles to become a two-man team?
Corruption is a short story that begins a new series by Kim Fielding.
It’s supernatural with what hints to be the beginning of a complicated hurt/comfort relationship with one clearly in the Master side of a D/s Angel/demon relationship.
The characters, only loosely set here but enormously fascinating with tremendous chemistry, have most of their background still to fill in.
So does the nebulous Bureau we only see or hear pieces of.
Corruption is like receiving the tantalizing first chapter of a new novel…. And now you want more. More foundation, more of the characters history and current predicament. And future going forward.
I’ll follow the promise set down here and look forward to all the stories to come.
The Bureau series:
Corruption #1
Clay White #2
Creature #3
Chained #4
Convicted #5
Connect #6
Caroled#7
Camouflaged #8 out now
Synopsis:
Once a proud demon of the night sky who carried nightmares to humans, Tenrael has spent decades in captivity as the star attraction of a traveling carnival. He exists in miserable servitude to men who plunk down ten dollars to fulfill their dark desires.
Charles Grimes is half human, half… something else. For fifteen years he’s worked for the Bureau of Trans-Species Affairs, ridding the country of dangerous monsters. When his boss sends him to Kansas to chase a rumor about a captive demon, Charles figures it’s just another assignment. Until he meets Tenrael
Scattered Thoughts and Rogue Words 