Category: Contemporary fiction

A Melanie Release Day Review: Building Forever (The Rebuilding Year #2.5) by Kaje Harper

Rating: 5 stars out of 5

Four years ago, Ryan and John decided they’d wait to get married until it came with full legal equality. Now, thanks to the Supreme Court, that historic moment has finally arrived. But two hundred miles separate Ryan’s hectic residency from John’s busy campus job. With a son in college, a daughter choosing her future, and a rambunctious Irish Setter needing attention, planning a wedding isn’t simple.

Of course, even the most perfect ceremony can’t solve all their problems. What does it take to build forever?

If you like me, fell in love with Ryan and John from The Rebuilding Years, then this is the story you’ve been waiting for.  Be prepared to laugh until your stomach hurts, cry more than a little, hold your breath through some white knuckle maneuvers and delays until we get to the culmination of their love story….their long awaited marriage.

It all happens in the heartwarming, joyous Building Forever (The Rebuilding Year #2.5) by Kaje Harper.  Much like John and Ryan, their inability to get legally married has left their readers frustrated as well as themselves.   So here we see the SCOTUS ruling having it’s effect all over again with the result that Ryan and John now finally get to get married.

Oh, if it was only that easy!

They are now living apart, divided by Ryan’s residency and John’s job.  Mark is in college and Rory is making her own plans, only their Irish Setter is still at home causing problems.  Getting everything into place for a wedding turns into an almost insurmountable feat, with obstacles piling up by the minute.  But (with Harper’s deft comedic touch and easily flowing plot) the narrative’s lively pace makes you howl and cry as the men scramble forward with love towards the one goal they’ve wanted…rings and HEA.

Harper brings in many of the secondary characters for the wedding, Tory and Mark their children, even the Irish Setter and of course the college as a setting.  All the elements are right, the dialog is perfect, and I just loved the ceremony.  Really, I couldn’t have asked for more.  For this couple or for us as readers.  It’s simply everything I wanted and didn’t know to ask for.

No, this is not a stand alone story.  Read all the others, starting with The Rebuilding Years and end here with Building Forever.  Better yet, read all three at once!  I highly recommend them all.

Cover by Karrie Jax.  I love the cover. It works for both men and setting.

Sales Links:

Book Details:

ebook, 80 pages
Expected publication: October 15th 2017
Edition LanguageEnglish
Series The Rebuilding Year #2.5

 

A MelanieM Recent Release Review: Tender with a Twist (Rainbow Cove #2) by Annabeth Albert

Rating: 5 stars out of 5

One kinky wood carver. One younger chef looking to try new things. A series of lessons that bring both men more than they bargained for…

Curtis Hunt has made a name for himself as a chainsaw wood carver, winning national competitions and operating a small business in Rainbow Cove, Oregon. As winter whittles away his tourist traffic, his goal is just to survive the season and try to not get lost in grief for his dead lover. It’s been two years, but he’s sure he’ll never be over the love of a lifetime. However, his body has a certain restlessness that he doesn’t quite know how to calm.

Logan Rosner knows a thing or two about restlessness. It’s what drove him to Rainbow Cove to be a chef at a bar and grill run by his friends. And it’s what drives him to a single sizzling encounter with the local legendary lumberjack. Both men get far more than they expected and learn that first impressions aren’t always accurate…

But when Logan proposes a series of sexy lessons, Curtis must decide how much he’s willing to risk. He knows he can’t afford to get attached to Logan’s good cooking, his easy smiles, or his caretaking, but he keeps going back for more, even as deeper emotions become involved. Soon, Curtis must decide whether to risk his heart again or risk losing Logan for good.

Tender with a Twist is a 75,000 word stand-alone gay romance with a May/December theme, featuring a second chance at love, opposites attract, loads of sexy times with mild BDSM elements, and one emotionally-charged, guaranteed happy ending with no cliffhangers.

With the release of Tender with a Twist by Annabeth Albert cements Rainbow Cove as one of my favorite destinations for love and romance.  Of course it started with Trust with a Chaser (Rainbow Cove, #1) where Mason Hanks with his friends Adam and Logan Rosner open a bar and grill in an Oregon seaside town desperately in need of revival.  Mason finds love with the town’s Sheriff Nash Flint while they struggle to keep their new restaurant alive.

In Tender with a Twist,  we find both the town and the restaurant all still trying to survive.  The restaurant is trying to make it through the off-season until the tourists return and the town is trying to adapt and understand what it would mean to be an LGBT destination point if the new resort opens up and the influx of new  businesses arrive.  Not all the townspeople are happy with the new developements.  In every way change appears as a force to be faced here in this story.

For both Curtis and Logan, the need for change is at the heart of the issues both men are facing.  With Annabeth Albert, there’s never any “telling” in her stories.  The author’s ability to telegraph the deep confusion, grief, frustration, and pain these men are going through to the reader is real and amazingly vivid.

For Curtis, he’s caught in place by the loss of his husband, held in stasis by his mother-in law’s grief as well as his own,  plus her guilt that refuses the let them both move forward towards anything like a life without her son. That’s she is also his last remaining tie to the man he loved? Just another knot on the ropes holding him in place…the fear that if he moves forward he will lose her too. He’s let everything go, abandoned their old friends, their pleasures, even houses.  Only one thing he has left personally…his need to be a sub.  And that has just been pulled away from him when the Dom he’s been using has said they can’t continue.  Plus his best friend, Nash, has just found a partner.  So now Curtis truly feels alone and isolated.  Albert makes us feel every bit of the pain and heartache emanating from Curtis Hunt.

Then there’s the surprising bundle of character traits that is Logan Rosner.  He is one of the most amazing characters and one I absolutely adored.  Logan too is bound by a past that won’t let go.  This time it’s his parents who refuse to see him as an adult, keeping him firmly planted in his painful past, binding him in their fears and in their image of him.  But Logan has strengths he has kept hidden, including the fact that he’s a Dom. An untried one, basically, but still a Dom and Curtis fits everything he wants in a sub.  And more…Curtis fits everything Logan wants in his life.

How Annabeth Albert works these two complicated men past the age barrier, the grief, their backgrounds, their families that are holding them back, all the realistic elements and then moves them forward into a relationship that the readers see lasting for the rest of their lives?  Well, it’s one of the most heart warming stories that I’ve read in awhile and one that’s made me love the Rainbow Cove series even more (if that’s possible).

The D/s element is so well done here, especially as it can’t be part of the romance, at least not at first.  Curtis can’t handle that.  So it’s woven into a different part of their lives as they discover more about that aspect of each other.  That level of trust then allows an openness for other revelations to follow.  And yes, it’s sexy and very, very hot!

But for me it’s the healing of two hearts and the love that these two men find together that even now starts to send me back to the beginning of their story to start to read it all over again.  Rainbow Cove is a very special place and as much as I love all of Annabeth Albert’s series, I suspect that this one has found it’s way to the top of the list.   It’s certainly my top destination location.   Make it yours!  You don’t have to have read the first in the series to read Tender with a Twist but it helps to give you that additional background knowledge on the place and characters you will meet here.   Plus it’s another fantastic story.  I highly recommend this one and the series.

Cover design: Sloan J Designs.  I love this design.  It’s perfect for the character and I love the tone that comes across.

Purchase at Amazon

Book Details:

ebook
Published October 2nd 2017 by Annabeth Albert
SeriesRainbow Cove #2 settingOregon (United States)

Release Blitz for Addison Albright’s Vows 1 & 2 Audiobook

 

 
Narrated By: David Gilmore 
 
‘Til Death Do Us Part – Amazon US | Amazon UK | Audible US | Audible UK
 
Length: 8hrs 3 mins
 

Henry and Sam Miller-Greene are living the dream. They love their careers — which afford each of them opportunities to travel to exotic locations — they love their home, Sam’s caring family, and each other. They disagree on the subject of adoption, but are fully committed to each other in marriage … ’Til Death Do Us Part.

The dream is shattered when Henry’s plane crashes, and he’s presumed dead. But four people — Henry, two other men, and a child — survive undetected on a remote, small, and insignificant island. Will Sam and Henry’s love be able to survive as well?

Henry fights to endure in harsh conditions, never knowing when disaster will strike. Sam struggles with his loss, but with help moves on with his life. Will Sam be able to put aside his new love when he reunites with Henry?

From This Day Forward – Amazon US | Amazon UK | Audible US | Audible UK

Length: 1hr 19mins


Revisiting the characters from ’Til Death Do Us Part, Henry and Sam Miller-Greene are enjoying life in the summer after Henry’s rescue from a small South Pacific island, where Henry and three others were marooned.

Henry and Sam thought adopting Aiden—a child with whom Henry’d been stranded—would be smooth sailing. Matters are complicated by the public nature of their rescue that has turned the survivors into overnight celebrities. Anti-gay fueled animus rears its ugly head in the blogosphere, causing concerns over the impact libelous rumors might have on Aiden.

Their nightmare separation behind them, Henry and Sam are anxious to renew both the intensity of their former intimacies—now hampered by having a curious and still apprehensive child sharing their home—and their commitment to one another.


Author Bio

Addison Albright lives in the middle of the USA with two peculiar cats. Her stories are gay (sometimes erotic) romance, and tend to be sweet man-love in contemporary settings. Her education includes a BS in Education with a major in mathematics and a minor in chemistry. Addison loves spending time with her family, reading, popcorn, boating, French fries, “open window weather,” cats, math, and anything chocolate. She loves to read pretty much anything and everything, anytime and anywhere.

eMail: addison.albright@gmail.com
Website/Blog: https://authoraddisonalbright.com
Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/AddisonAlbright
Facebook Profile: https://www.facebook.com/addison.albright.profile
Twitter: http://twitter.com/AddisonAlbright
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/addisonalbright/
BookBub: https://www.bookbub.com/profile/addison-albright
Queeromance Ink: https://www.queeromanceink.com/mbm-book-author/addison-albright/

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A MelanieM Review: Hunter (Brawlers #4) by J.M. Dabney

Rating: 3.75 stars out of 5

Welcome to Brawlers Bar…

If there was a way to completely destroy his life, Hunter Black would do it. He was a catastrophe waiting to happen. Survival was his only priority and having to leave his old life behind that meant a job of the legal variety. He’d found one as a bartender at Brawlers Bar and a safe place in a huge house with the rest of the bar crew who quickly became the family he’d never had. The one thing Hunter didn’t need was his old life tracking him down.

Deputy Wren Gramble hated his job and his weekend assignment of staking out a bar in the middle of nowhere waiting for drunks. Although he’d heard the homophobic and racist jokes going around about the crew and customers, he kept his head down and stuck to his job and nothing else. He despised being driven back into the closet, but he’d reached the end of the line and what he’d do if he earned another transfer he didn’t know.

Linus Trenton was considered the normal one in his family and according to the weird ones that meant he should be punished on a daily basis. He never came out one way or another, if he found someone attractive he was attracted. His life was complicated enough having a crush on the sweet and awkward Hunter but now he had to throw Wren into the mix. Linus didn’t have time for dating or romance, most of the time he didn’t even think about having a sex life, although, Wren and Hunter were ruining his calm.

Hunter was in lust with the handsome deputy the minute the man pulled him over, but a man like that wouldn’t give him the time of day. His friend, Linus, was another matter altogether. Hunter wanted both. His bosses made it work with their man, why couldn’t he? Could Hunter prove he wasn’t as much of a screw up as he appeared or would he have to call in backup to claim his men?

Hunter (Brawlers #4) by J.M. Dabney surprised me in many ways.  For me it seemed to hold  the least amount of angst that i’ve come to expect of the Dabney men and the Brawlers series.  Hunter is quiet to the point of utter silence, he’s so clumsy that he often poses a danger to himself and others, shy with a self esteem that seems to exist at basement level.  He’s bearish with long hair (how the cover missed a motherlode there) and everyone seems to want to look after him.  Surprisingly again, the author is stingy with Hunter’s backstory. At least with the others, we’ve gotten an idea of the circumstances that brought them to Brawler’s.  Here we just get the barest outline of jail time and some juvenile arrests, not nearly enough.

Those details are left for Linus Trenton and Deputy Wren Gramble, the two men vying for Hunter’s love and ending up as a threesome.  As the fourth book in the Brawlers series, it’s also the one that sees the most storyline involving the corruption within the Sheriff’s Department and how that affects Hunter, Linus, and Wren.  This book also sets the stage for my all time favorite stories and series, the Executioners.  So maybe, Hunter just had too much to do.

But whatever the case maybe I felt as though this threesome was missing some of that magic, or vivid relationship interactions that brought the other three stories alive.  Somehow I never felt as connected to these men as I did all the other couples (and it’s not due to the fact that it’s a menage – those can be very hot).   Maybe it was that it felt as though it happened too fast, or just that Hunter had ignored Linus and then he didn’t.  I’m not sure what the element here is that made me wishing for all the other couples stories again but the spark, that heat, never flared.  Sweet, happy even, yes….but never quite Brawlers red hot.

There are some really funny moments here to enjoy. I can always count on the author to supply those, usually along with some major angst which is missing here.  Dabney’s  wonderful dialog and  rough hewn characters are always something I look forward to and I needed to see Hunter get his HEA which he does.  Most importantly though, the author is tying up some story threads and setting the tone and overall plot in place for two of the best books of the connected series (all three), that would be Ghost and Joker.  I have listed all the series and stories below.

I don’t really consider any of these stories stand alone as they flow from one person to another, connecting, developing and using each as a foundation for the next.  So remarkable.   So one more jump backward to the Twirled World Ink series to see where it all began.

Whether it’s Hunter or the Brawlers series, I absolutely  recommend them all.  Then continue to  finish off all the series and wait for the rest to be released just like me!  I can hardly wait.

Cover art by Winterheart Designs is showing just the torso.  I think this is a miss as they could have included Hunter’s signature long hair.

Sales Link:  Amazon

Book Details:

book, 160 pages
Published June 13th 2017 by Hostile Whispers Press
Series Brawlers #4

An Alisa Audiobook Review: Afraid to Fly by LA Witt and Nick J. Russo (Narrator)

Rating:  4 stars out of 5

 

Once a fearless fighter pilot, Commander Travis Wilson is now confined to a desk. It’s been eight years since the near-fatal crash that grounded him, and it still rules his life thanks to relentless back pain.

 

Lieutenant Commander Clint Fraser almost drowned in a bottle after a highly classified catastrophe while piloting a drone. His downward spiral cost him his marriage and kids, but he’s sober now and getting his life back on track. He’s traded drones for a desk, and he’s determined to reconcile with his kids and navigate the choppy waters of PTSD.

 

Clint has been on Travis’s radar ever since he transferred to Anchor Point. When Clint comes out to his colleagues, it’s a disaster, but there’s a silver lining: now that Travis knows Clint is into men, the chemistry between them explodes.

 

It’s all fun and games until emotions get involved. Clint’s never been in love with a man before. Travis has, and a decade later, that tragic ending still haunts him. Clint needs to coax him past his fear of crashing and burning again, or their love will be grounded before takeoff.

 

This was a great story of two broken men finding love and acceptance with one another.  Clint has had a hard battle to bring his life around and still has to face his ex’s scrutiny and his own doubts.  Travis has worked hard to keep relationships from getting too involved as they always leave but will Clint be the exception?

 

Both of these characters’ stories are heartbreaking.  After Clint’s drone catastrophe he doesn’t have anywhere or anyone to turn to and his life just implodes and he’s finally on an even keel but still incredibly lonely without any family around or anyone to lean on.  Travis knows that no one will ever want to deal with his back pain, heck he doesn’t want to deal with it and when thoughts from his past start to come back to haunt him he wants to run in fear.  I loved how Clint wasn’t willing to just let go and was willing to work for them to figure it all out.

 

Nick Russo did a wonderful job narrating this story.  I could just feel the characters’ emotions right along with them while listening.  The different voices he used for the characters helped me keep up with what was going on and get an idea of the characters personality some more.

 

I love the cover art by LC Chase and it follows the pattern for the series.

 

Sales Links:  Audible | Amazon | iTunes

 

Audiobook Details:

Audiobook, 9 hrs 22 min
Published: August 31, 2017 (ebook first published January 16, 2017) by Riptide
Edition Language: English

Series: Anchor Point #2

An Alisa Recent Release Review: Picture Winter by Amy Aislin

Rating:  4 stars out of 5

 

What happens when two Capricorns fall in love?

 

Do something new today.

 

Why he looks at his horoscope every day, Elias Hood doesn’t know. It’s all garbage, and no nickel fortune ever helped him climb all the way up the corporate ladder. He’s about to make Vice President. Rocking the boat with “something new” is the last thing on his mind.

 

But there’s this guy.

 

Ty Green can make friends with a tree and Elias can’t help falling for his easy-going vibe and his perfect smile. He’s a fellow Capricorn, like Elias, but that’s as far as their similarities go. Ty works to live—he doesn’t live to work. When Elias takes his horoscope’s advice and asks Ty out, both men are in for a shock. But as Elias’s walls start to come down, they might just realize that they have more in common than they think. In fact, they might even want the exact same thing.

 

Who knows? Maybe horoscopes aren’t just trash after all.

 

I immensely enjoyed this story, it is just two men falling in love and learning to navigate a relationship and their lives together.  Elias seems like such a stick in the mud at the beginning but we soon learn there is more than meets the eye.  Ty is just a bubble of energy and is the perfect force to break through Elias’s walls.

 

My heart broke for how Elias’s childhood had made him need to have security in his job and life, even if it isn’t what he has always wanted to do.  They help each other see that their plans can change but that doesn’t mean it isn’t what they are meant to be doing.  It was beautiful how Ty’s family embraces Elias into their lives from the very beginning.

 

I did love how they were willing to take the relationship at their own pace, which is much faster than many but it works for them.  They talk things out and make sure that they don’t overstep.  There was no big thing for them to “solve” in regards to their relationship but I think that this story was perfectly done for these characters.

 

The cover art by Melody Pond is beautiful and I think it’s perfect for this story.

 

Sales Links: MLR Press | Amazon | B&N

 

Book Details:

ebook, 173 pages

Published: October 6, 2017 by MLR Press

Edition Language: English