Category: Contemporary fiction

Release Blitz for Merrick The Art Thief by Michelle Woody (excerpt)

 

Buy Links: Amazon US | Amazon UK | JMS Books
 
Length: 56,030 words 
 
Publisher: JMS Books
 
Blurb
 

Brilliant art thief Merrick Davidson can steal anything, except Grant Silvan’s heart. Merrick has to keep Grant at arm’s length for fear of revealing his secret. When Merrick’s biggest rival exposes his secret to Grant, the rejected lover returns to win back his relationship with Merrick, but there are obstacles to overcome.


Wyatt Silvan, Grant’s father and Merrick’s employer, is after the famous seven Xanderclied paintings, which all contain clues to a treasure. If Merrick succeeds in obtaining all the paintings and find the treasure, he can retire as an art thief and start a normal, uncomplicated life with Grant.


Together, they hunt the paintings from art galleries to private collections, from city to city, dodging bullets and escaping from life threatening attacks. With danger all around and the FBI on their tails, will Wyatt and Merrick find the paintings and treasure they are looking for? Will Merrick realize love is the biggest treasure of it all, before it is too late?


Excerpt


Rhonda and Grant stood at the end of the hallway, looking around.


Merrick caught Rhonda’s gaze.


“There you are.” Rhonda approached him with Grant following.


“What’s wrong?”


“I don’t like this.” Rhonda leaned close. “I told him you two would look less suspicious with the family around.”


“Oh boy.” Merrick rubbed his chin as he glanced down the hall in hopes Wyatt would be there.


Wyatt’s voice came through the earpiece. “Honey, I can hear you.”


“Where are you?” Rhonda started toward the desk.


“We’ll look around. Bye.” Merrick removed his earpiece. “Let’s try the second floor.”


“Are they fighting?”


“Probably.”


“I’ve never heard them fight.”


Merrick pursed his lips. “Let’s just look for the painting.”


They took the sprawling cream-colored marble stairs to the second floor. The landing branched out to their left and right, walls on both sides lined with framed paintings and photographs. They started down the hall to their right. Only three people moved past the works of art and didn’t seem to pay Merrick and Grant any attention.


Beside him, Grant fidgeted with his watch. He wanted to hold Grant’s hand, to enjoy the stroll through the museum. How nice it’d be if there was no stress or danger, only the feel of Grant’s soft hand, his arm resting against Merrick’s as they walked.


After they passed several paintings, Merrick grinned, bowed his head.


“What?”


He glanced at the security cameras in the corners, then at Grant. “You’re distracting me.”


“I’m not doing anything.”


“You are.”


Grant smiled.


Merrick stared into Grant’s eyes for several breaths. The blue reminded him of the ocean; inviting and healing.


Grant lowered his voice. “Can my dad hear us?”


“Oh.” He looked at the earpiece in his hand. “Maybe.”


Grant nodded as he walked on.


Merrick fell into step beside him, forcing his attention to the art, even though he could feel Grant’s looks.


Grant moved closer so their arms touched. He wrapped his pinkie around Merrick’s, grinning as he turned his gaze away from Merrick.


The simple contact rushed through him. His fantasies of a life with Grant weren’t coming close to how wonderful it felt to really have him at his side.


Grant stopped them. “You’re blushing.”


“See? Distracting.”


Behind Grant, two sets of double doors led to a room where paintings in vivid colors of blues and reds flanked Xanderclied’s Despair. He took Grant’s hand. “Let’s look in here.”


As they stepped through the doorway, Merrick studied the rectangular room. With the recent thefts of Xanderclied works, the upgraded security around Despair wasn’t surprising. A wire ran from the bottom of the canvas, probably attached to a motion-activated alarm. Cameras aimed down from each corner of the room. At the two doorways, nestled into the high ceiling, were roll cages, which Merrick presumed were set to drop once the motion alarm was triggered. It was daunting, but nothing they couldn’t handle. What troubled him was whatever trick Jordan had waiting for them.


Grant faced the door, sliding his arm through Merrick’s. “I’m so nervous.”


“Relax. Nothing is going to happen right now.”


Grant caught his breath. “I’ve seen that guy before.”


Merrick glanced at the doorway, finding it empty. “Who?”


A red-haired man with a bushy beard walked along the far side of the hall. Merrick had seen him before, too. He was the flirt from the Cunningham opening. Why was he there, today of all days? Was he a part of Jordan’s game?


Merrick gripped Grant’s hand as he slid his earpiece back into place. “Guys, we have a problem.”

 
Author Bio


Michelle Woody lives in Springfield, Missouri. Her other titles include Riley, winner of the 2010 National Indie Excellence Award for Gay/Lesbian Fiction, The Scarecrow’s Kiss, and Figment of the Heart.


For more information, please visit michellewoody.com.
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A MelanieM Review: Forged in Flood by Dahlia Donovan

Rating: 5 stars out of 5

 

When one drunken night forever scars three best friends, will they ever find a way to pick up the pieces?

Eaten up with guilt, Ivan Black spends ten years hiding from the world. He retreats to his family forge to wallow in misery. Alone. So lonely his heart aches with it.

Wesley Cook and Rolland Spence have been together since university. They struggle through the physical scars of the accident, building a life in the ruins of their dreams. They find happiness but continue to miss their angry ginger Viking—Ivan.

In all the anger of wasted years, the three men find a way to forge a relationship as hot as the fires in the smithy.

I’ve long been a fan of the novels of Dahlia Donovan, but Forged in Fire may be her best story yet.  It is a deeply moving love story between three men who lost each other and their chance at major careers in rugby directly after the university. Young men drove drunk and disastrously crashed, rolling the car, ending their triad through grievous injuries and the guilt one still carries to this day.  That would be the driver Ivan.

All this we learn in bitter bits and pieces one wet, flooded night as the waters rise about the village of Boscastle and Ivan’s family’s forge high on the hill.  It’s over a decade after the accident and “Ivan the Terrible” as his family calls him has fully retreated from life to his forge, shutting off all contact, including the two men who used to mean the most to him.  He’s plagued by memory loss from brain damage, deep guilt, and a deep seated rage that is his legacy from his father, now in prison.  His past not only haunts him but he fights it every second of the day.  And it mostly wins and tears him down.

Ivan is a savage portraiture of a man.  Driven by his demons yet Donovan continues to make us understand him as she reveals more and more of his past and his struggles to get by them.  They include his father who we meet in prison and who Ivan is named after.

But the heart and soul of this story is the dynamics, return of love and relationship of the triad. Born in the rising flood waters in Boscastle, it’s painful, so slow its like slogging through the rising tide, full of anger, resentment, pain, and loss.  They have a decade of issues to work through…even abandonment.  Incredibly, the author also manages to bring in laughter, giggles, light touches, and some incredibly  sexy scenes that show that the pull between all three men isn’t just some surface attraction.  No, it’s cellular.  These men need each other in order to be complete.  Donovan makes us believe it absolutely.  We feel it as much as the men do.

If Ivan is a complete character, so is Wesley Cook and Rolland “Rolly” Spence, who have been together as an existing couple since the accident.  They have returned to get their third, Ivan, and bring him “home”.  Each one of them, so clearly defined and beautifully written that its a joy to meet them and be included in their relationship.  It’s fun to watch and listen to, the dialog shows the ease of a couple who has been together for years as does the sex between them.  Loving, quick, and warmhearted.  Yet still they yearn for Ivan, all prickles and anger who they’ve missed all this time.  And he’s missed them as well.

The emotions here are huge, the growth, the pain, the fear the oozes off of Ivan as he faces his past, his father, his disabilities and even his future, it will scare even you.  Bring tissues.  For 130 pages, this is a big book.

I can’t begin to tell you all how much I love it and the men here.  It will leave a lasting impact.  One incredibly stupid decision and three lives changed forever.  Now we how the aftermath turns out and lives change again.

I highly recommend this story. The writing is incredible, the descriptions vivid and carry such emotional heft, and the characters so real you believe in them and invest in them absolutely.

And for those of you who are wondering, no this is not connected to her Sin Bin series other than a brief mention of Taine Afoa.  It’s completely standalone.

So yes, go pick it up, dive in and lose yourself in these men and their road back to each other.

Cover art: Claire Smith.  I love this artist’s work and this cover is no different.  It’s perfect for this story.

Sales Links:  Hot Tree Publishing  | Amazon

Book Details:

Kindle Edition, 130 pages
Published July 14th 2018 by Hot Tree Publishing
ASINB07DS6HLPJ
Edition LanguageEnglish

Forged in Flood is a British contemporary M/M/M romance. With heartache, hot men with foul mouths, and plenty of heat, enjoy getting to know Ivan, Wesley, and Roland.

A Lucy Audiobook Review : Unscripted Love (Road to Blissville #1) by Aimee Nicole Walker and Joel Leslie (Narrator)

Rated 3 stars out of 5

This story is told in the alternating point of view of Chaz and Kyle.  Chaz is a writer and fan of online gaming who works in a salon.  He has been crushing on the sexy vet, Kyle, for a while and they eventually start to talk and date.  Dr Dimples, as Chaz calls Kyle, is sweet, kind and he likes Chaz very much. He is also a World of Warcraft fan, so they start to bond over that

I would have rated this book higher but I had some issues with Kyle being a doormat at times and with Chaz being ridiculous with his yes/no/yes towards Kyle. Chaz has a secret that he is afraid will send Kyle running, but he had so many chances to come clean about it and didn’t.  Instead, he would run out on Kyle, or not see him.  The secret itself to me wasn’t that big of a deal and I felt it was there just to provide some conflict.  The book actually begins with Chaz whispering the secret into Kyle’s ear and then flashes back to a year earlier when the whole thing actually started. Kyle had noticed Chaz previously in a lustful way but since he was with Gabe he never did anything about it. 

Chaz has some funny inner dialogue.  When seeing Kyle professionally about his pet, Harry, he thinks, “Harry? No, I manscape to within an inch of my life.  No wild bush with hairy man berries here!”  But his obsessing about his secret causes him to run so often that he made me crazy. He has some endearing qualities, such as when “I grabbed a glass of wine, a dog-eared paperback copy of Agatha Christie’s The Mysterious Affair at Styles, my phone and set them all on the nifty bath tray that my grandmother got  me for Christmas.”  Anyone who takes a bath while reading Dame Agatha has smarts, I just wish he would have used them.

On the whole, it was a little bland and the “secret” was so blown out of proportion that it was frustrating.  You would think he had a body hidden somewhere, the way he acted sometimes.  It’s very confusing for Kyle when Chaz is very hot and cold towards him. There were times he hurt Kyle for no good reason. “I saw the moment he realized I wasn’t going to stay.  His dashed hopefulness made me want to cry.”  Kyle, grow a pair!

The side characters, Chaz’s best friend, Josh, and his boyfriend, Gabe, play an integral part.  It was a little awkward because Gabe is Kyle’s ex-boyfriend, a serious relationship that apparently parted very amiably.  This is a spin-off of the Curl Up and Dye series and Josh and Gabe get together there.  I probably should have read that first because I think their story would be more interesting.  Josh and Gabe sort of push Chaz and Kyle together and that causes some consternation.  Meredith, the other Chaz and Josh bestie, is strong and wonderful in her own right.

Oh and the family!  I loved the Matrons.  Grandma, Mom and Aunt Sandy, meddling in Chaz’ love life and just being strong women who want their boy to be happy.  They were so awesome.  “We have a book idea for you, dear,” Grandma said. “We want you to write a story about a small-town guy who really likes the town vet is too afraid to act on it… let’s name him Chad…” They miss nothing, those ladies.

Once the secret is FINALLY revealed, Kyle handles the info like a champ (which we knew he would because he is awesome) and it was a bit of a let down after all that Chaz-drama.

I am a big fan of Joel Leslie’s work but this wasn’t my favorite of his audio.  Right in the beginning there was a strange intonation and I was worried.  But as the book started the voices smoothed out, except there wasn’t quite enough differentiation for Chaz and Kyle, so there were times (as I was listening while driving) that I lost track of who was talking. Mom and Gramma, on the other hand, were done so well I could picture them.

This was my first Aimee Nicole Walker book and I would try another of hers. 

Cover art by Jay Aheer is eye-catching and perfect for the story.  Love it.

Sales Links:

AMAZON US: http://amzn.to/2uzVnkV

AMAZON UK: http://amzn.to/2tzosN1 

Audiobook Details:

Audible Audio, 9 pages
Published May 29th 2018 by Tantor Audio (first published July 11th 2017)
ASINB07CZ4LZ4Y
Edition LanguageEnglish
SeriesRoad to Blissville #1
CharactersKyle Vaughn, Charles Bailey” Chaz ” Hamilton

A Barb the Zany Old Lady Review: Be Still My Heart (Four Kings Security Book 2) by Charlie Cochet

Rating: 3 stars out of 5

This is the second in a series that features a sexy group of security men, each of whom have a nickname related of a suite of cards. This story highlights Red, a former Special Forces medical sergeant who suffers from PTSD after the loss of half of his group of brothers-in-arms while still on active duty. We first met Red in book one when he saved Laz, the equally sexy fashion photographer, who fell into Colton’s pool when his ex shoved him and he hit his head.

Bryan, the ex, is still causing trouble in this story. First, his taunts are still playing in Laz’s mind, leaving him feeling unworthy of Red, and second, the ex is involved with Paolo, the husband of the fashion designer Laz has contracted to work with. This is the same man who Laz found out about when he was still with Bryan so there’s no love lost when it appears that Bryan or Paolo might be the person who seems to be trying to kill Laz now.

Sound crazy? It is. All of this drama fits in with a lot of sexy times between Laz and Red and tons of backstory fill. In fact, about halfway through the story I realized that the author spends more time in this book “telling” and less time “showing” us what is going on. There are many pages of lengthy paragraphs outlining what happened yesterday, today, and several years ago. But there are much less pages filled with dialogue, something I happen to like as it generally carries me along with a story “showing” me what’s happening. That might be why I kept losing interest as I was reading. I’d put the book down and forget about it for a while.

One minor point that bugged me—at the beginning of the story Laz stated he had no idea why he never heard from Red after he got out of the hospital 3 months before. He thought they’d gotten along well so couldn’t figure out why there was no communication. Of course, his self-esteem had been knocked so low by Bryan he wouldn’t try to call Red himself. At any rate, when he and Red finally meet again, they immediately hook up and never again mention that time apart. In fact, they often refer to how they got together when Laz fell into the pool, so it seemed odd to me that they acted as if they’d been together all along.

Overall, the plot was okay, but not complex, and there was so much time spent between Laz and Red trying to establish their relationship, and then doubting it, and then jumping into bed, and then declaring their love for one another, I felt as if I was reading an old Harlequin romance. It felt gratuitous and quickly put together with a simple storyline that heavily relied on the full cast of characters—the former band of brothers who now work for King Security. So, although I liked it, I didn’t love it. Someone looking for sexy men, light plot, lots of sex, and a host of characters should like this one.

The cover by Reese Dante features a good-looking man with a full back tattoo and a Florida city skyline, likely Miami. It is an attractive cover and represents Red, the MC from this story.

Sales Links:   Amazon

Book Details:

  • File Size: 1498 KB
  • Print Length: 306 pages
  • Publication Date: July 28, 2018
  • Sold by: Amazon Digital Services LLC
  • Language: English
  • ASIN: B07FZPFVQN