Category: Contemporary fiction

Its All About the Heart’s Perspective in The Heart As He Hears It By A.M. Arthur (excerpt and giveaway)

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The Heart As He Hears It (Perspectives #3) by A.M. Arthur
 Release Date: April 19, 2016

 Goodreads Link
Publisher: Samhain Publishing
Cover Artist: Lyn Taylor

Blurb

While most of his friends have moved on to “real” careers, Jon Buchanan is content skating through life as a part-time waiter and gay porn star. Firmly single thanks to a previous relationship disaster, he focuses his spare time on Henry, a dear friend dying of cancer.

And with Henry’s happiness paramount, Jon is on a mission to help Henry meet his recently discovered grandson.

Isaac Gregory hasn’t set foot outside for the past year. He has everything he needs delivered, and his remaining family knows better than to visit. When a complete stranger shows up claiming to be his grandfather—with a distractingly handsome younger man in tow—his carefully structured routines are shaken.

Despite his instant attraction, Jon senses Isaac is too fragile for a relationship. Yet tentative friendship grows into genuine companionship. And when Henry’s health begins to fail, they realize Fate brought them together for a reason.

 

Pages or Words: 253 pages
Can be read as a standalone

 Also available in audiobook format with Guy Locke as the narrator
 Categories: Contemporary, Fiction, M/M Romance, Romance

Excerpt

Jon studied him, his gaze taking in…something. “May I ask you something?”

“Of course.” His chest flushed with anticipation.

“How do you feel when you’re with me?”

Isaac tried to push aside the anxiety still attempting to blur his thoughts, an old friend that wanted to be part of the conversation. Only anxiety wasn’t allowed in, not this time. He shuffled through different words, emotions and adjectives, searching for the one that best described how he felt about Jon. How Jon made him feel, despite being a near-stranger, bigger, stronger and far more experienced in pretty much everything. Jon still made him feel… “Safe,” Isaac said.

Jon’s eyebrows crept up. The corners of his mouth quirked into something not quite a smile. “Really?”

“Yes. The first time I saw you on my security feed, I noticed how beautiful you were.” His cheeks warmed.

Jon flat out grinned. “Yeah?”

“You’re kind and patient, and I feel safe because you don’t try to fix me, and you don’t act like I’m broken. My family thinks I’m broken, and I don’t want them to fix me. I just…” Something in Isaac shifted, accepting this new truth. “I need to feel safe, Jon. That’s why I hide. But you make me not want to hide.”

Jon’s eyes glittered. His expression melted into something so warm, so sweet, that it burned in Isaac’s blood in a way he didn’t understand at all. The strange sensation urged him to reach out, to initiate contact of some kind. Deep-rooted fear kept Isaac still, unable to make that first move. Unable to do anything except soak in the wonderment on Jon’s face.

“I think that’s the greatest compliment I’ve ever gotten,” Jon said. His voice was hoarse, strange. Almost difficult to hear, so Isaac paid more attention to his lips. “Is it cheesy to say your strength makes me want to be better too?”

Isaac shook his head. “I’m not strong.”

“You’re stronger than you think. You proved that by letting me and Henry in two weeks ago. You proved it again by going out to rescue a kitten. Twice, by the way. You told me you want to get better, get into the world, and that takes a fuck-ton of courage when you’ve lost as much as you have. I know it won’t be easy, but I still want to help you do that.”

“I know you do. I want that too.”

  Buy the book:  Amazon  | Barnes & Noble

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Meet the Author

A.M. Arthur was born and raised in the same kind of small town that she likes to write about, a stone’s throw from both beach resorts and generational farmland.  She’s been creating stories in her head since she was a child and scribbling them down nearly as long, in a losing battle to make the fictional voices stop.  She credits an early fascination with male friendships (bromance hadn’t been coined yet back then) with her later discovery of and subsequent love affair with m/m romance stories. A.M. Arthur’s work is available from Samhain Publishing, Carina Press, Dreamspinner Press, and SMP Swerve.

When not exorcising the voices in her head, she toils away in a retail job that tests her patience and gives her lots of story fodder.  She can also be found in her kitchen, pretending she’s an amateur chef and trying to not poison herself or others with her cuisine experiments.

Where to find the author:


Tour Dates & Stops:

Parker Williams, Divine Magazine, Oh My Shelves, Unquietly Me, The Jena Wade, Full Moon Dreaming,

Making It Happen, Book Lovers 4Ever, BFD Book Blog, The Hat Party, Alpha Book Club, V’s Reads,

Two Chicks Obsessed With Books and Eye Candy, Bayou Book Junkie, My Fiction Nook, Happily Ever Chapter,

Wicked Faerie’s Tales and Reviews, Sinfully Addicted to All Male Romance, A.M. Leibowitz, Outrageous Heroes,

Elisa – My Reviews and Ramblings, Nephy Hart, Boys on the Brink Reviews, MM Good Book Reviews,

Molly Lolly, Gay Media Reviews, Kirsty Loves Books, Jessie G. Books, Havan Fellows, Anna Butler Fiction,

Dawn’s Reading Nook, Fangirl Moments and My Two Cents, Mikky’s World of Books, Inked Rainbow Reads,

Scattered Thoughts & Rogue Words

Final

Giveaway

Enter to win a Rafflecopter Prize: An e-book from A.M. Arthur’s backlist
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Barb, A Zany Old Lady Review: Selfie: A Bluewater Bay Novel by Amy Lane

Rating: 5 stars out of 5        ★★★★★

Selfie_600x900Long term Amy Lane fans may remember how they felt after completing Chase in Shadow—devastated, gutted, and put back together in a better way than they were before that experience. Well, guess what? This one is even more heart-wrenching but it’s also heartwarming and full of hope. And there’s just the right amount of humor to balance out the grief and sadness.

As the story opens, Connor Montgomery has just done the selfie of all selfies—he’s made a one hour video and posted it on YouTube. And thank God, he forgot the sound. His agent/friend/mother-figure, Jillian, rushes to his side to try to restore a semblance of sanity to his life. One year ago, his lover of ten years, his soulmate, Vinnie, was killed in an auto accident, and Connor has been grieving alone in his Malibu home—the one next door to Vinnie’s—for the past year. No one knew they were lovers. Vinnie didn’t want his parents to find out, and after he was killed, Connor upheld his wishes, therefore he’s grieved alone while watching Vinnie’s family come and go next door. Neither young man had left a will so the entire contents of Vinnie’s home—memorabilia from their lives together—now belongs to Vinnie’s family. When Jilly gets to Connor, it’s evident that she too has been missing Vinnie and together the two spend much needed time grieving him together because “grieving alone had left us lost, but grieving together was just easier to do.”

Of course, he was going to melt down. Of course, he would be so wounded he wouldn’t be able to function. And yet, this wonderful, strong, sweet man survives, and when Jilly tells him of an offer from the Wolf’s Landing TV show, Connor sees it as a chance to live again. God knows, it’s about time.

The move turns out to be more than he could have hoped for, if he indeed dared to hope. Noah Dakers enters his life as chauffer, personal assistant, bodyguard, and ultimately lover. Noah has an advanced degree in philosophy but is perfectly happy working on the show in Bluewater Bay to stay close to his family. Noah immediately realizes that Connor needs to be taken in hand and given the support that Connor usually doles out to others. Noah sees behind the façade to the man who needs someone to take care of him, to bring him a measure of peace, and lead him back into the land of the living. Connor’s been walking around in a cloud of grief for so long that he doesn’t even realize he can have a satisfying sex life again. Connor craves Noah’s dominance, thinking “the only reason to put your pleasure in someone else’s hands—if you know they’ll use their hands to stroke that pleasure into ecstasy.”

What Noah doesn’t realize at first is that Connor speaks to Vinnie in his mind. He’s moved past the initial stage of shock and now runs everything past Vinnie, including his attraction to Noah. Never having had the closure of saying good-bye to Vinnie is wreaking havoc on Connor’s emotional state, a havoc which has unseen and potentially deadly consequences.

I loved both of these MCs and the whole host of secondary characters in this story, including Noah’s grandmother, father, and sister, Vivian, and Connor’s staunchest supporter, Jilly. Amy Lane doesn’t just provide a sketch of a character—she nails it with carefully selected words and phrases that paint a picture in the reader’s imagination. Providing us with a visit with some of the other Wolf’s Landing characters like Carter and Levi was simply icing on the cake, but greatly appreciated.

There’s both pathos and humor, and in typical Amy Lane fashion, the humor is often in the obvious details of daily living such as when an actor has his cameraman lying before him taking a shot as the camera looks upward, and the actor has to assure he clipped his nose hairs and blew so that nobody sees his boogers on camera! Gawd, I love this author’s work—some more than others—and this one is right up there among my all-time favorites.

This story brought tears to my eyes but I didn’t sob. It’s simply a beautiful love story—both of the lost love and the new—and the hope it generates wipes out any sad tears and turns them to tears of joy. I highly recommend this to all who love MM romance, especially to those who enjoy recovery from grief and/or hurt-comfort with a little D/s thrown in. It certainly can be read as a standalone, as can all stories in the Bluewater Bay universe, but if you haven’t read any others in this series, by all means start now with Starstruck by L.A. Witt, the first of many wonderful books in this world.

~~~~~

Cover art by L.C. Chase depicts Connor standing on the shore overlooking an island in the sound, an island that figures prominently in the story, thereby making the cover perfect for this book.

Sales Links:   Riptide Publishing | ARe | Amazon

Book Details:

Kindle Edition
Published April 16th 2016 by Riptide Publishing
ASIN B01EED4QK8
Edition Language English

Its Back to Bluewater Bay with Selfie by Amy Lane (special audio links and giveaway)

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Selfie: A Bluewater Bay Novel by Amy Lane
Published by Riptide Publishing
Art by L. C. Chase

 

For the Selfie blog tour, Amy Lane has written a few monologues from Vinnie’s video blog, set prior to the crash that takes his life. These monologues, performed by Nick J. Russo of Dark Night Sound, correspond to scenes or memories reference by Connor in Selfie, giving you a unique look at this off-screen character.

Please visit http://riptidepublishing.com/titles/selfie and select the extras tab for all six monologues, which will be updated there as they are published.

Enjoying Bluewater Bay? All Bluewater Bay titles are being produced in audio, starting with Starstruck, written by L.A. Witt and narrated by Nick J. Russo, coming soon!

About SelfieBWBlogo_Web

One year ago, actor Connor Montgomery lost the love of his life to a drunk driver. But what’s worse for Connor is what he still has: a lifetime of secrets born of hiding his relationship from the glare of Hollywood. Unable to let go of the world he and Vinnie shared, Connor films a drunken YouTube confession on the anniversary of Vinnie’s death.

Thankfully, the video was silent—a familiar state for Connor—so his secret is still safe. He needs a fresh start, and a new role on the hit TV show Wolf’s Landing might be just that.

The move to Bluewater Bay may also mean a second chance in the form of his studio-assigned assistant. Noah Dakers sees through Connor’s facades more quickly than Connor could imagine. Noah’s quiet strength and sarcastic companionship offers Connor a chance at love that Hollywood’s closet has never allowed. But to accept it, Connor must let Vinnie go and learn to live again.

About Amy Lane

Amy Lane exists happily with her noisy family in a crumbling suburban crapmansion, and equally happily with the surprisingly demanding voices who live in her head.

She loves cats, movies, yarn, pretty colors, pretty men, shiny things, and Twu Wuv, and despises house cleaning, low fat granola bars, and vainglorious prickweenies.

She can be found at her computer, dodging housework, or simultaneously reading, watching television, and knitting, because she likes to freak people out by proving it can be done.

Connect with Amy:

 

About Nick J. Russo

 

Nick J. Russo has been a professional performer for over a decade, but has been voicing audio books for the past few years. He has voiced several titles throughout the romance, sci-fi, supernatural, and thriller genres, and has recently started his very own sound studio; Dark Night Sound. On top of voice acting, Russo manages Dark Night Sound with his fiance and works with a staff of four up and coming narrators. In his free time, Russo is a drummer in a pop/rock cover band, loves to travel, and dreams of one day being able to voice a role in an animated comedy series.

 

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Giveaway

To celebrate the release of Selfie, one lucky person will receive e-copies of Amy’s entire backlist with Riptide, and an Amy Lane t-shirt. Leave a comment to enter the contest. Entries close at midnight, Eastern time, on April 23, 2016. Contest is NOT restricted to U.S. entries. Thanks for following the tour, and don’t forget to leave your contact info!

Its Release Day for Imperfect Harmony by Jay Northcote!

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Imperfect Harmony by Jay Northcote

Publisher: Jaybird Press (self published)
Cover Artist: Garrett Leigh

Release Date: Friday 15th of April 2016
Goodreads link

Blurb

Imperfect harmony can still be beautiful…

John Fletcher, a former musician, is stuck in limbo after losing his long-term partner two years ago. He’s shut himself off from everything that reminds him of what he’s lost. When his neighbour persuades him to join the local community choir, John rediscovers his love of music and finds a reason to start living again.

Rhys Callington, the talented and charismatic choir leader, captures John’s attention from the first moment they meet. He appears to be the polar opposite of John: young, vibrant, and full of life. But Rhys has darkness in his own past that is holding him back from following his dreams.

Despite the nineteen-year age gap, the two men grow close and a fragile relationship blossoms. Ghosts of the past and insecurities about the future threaten their newfound happiness. If they’re going to harmonise in life and love as they do in their music, they’ll need to start following the same score.

Length: 66,000 words
Genre: Contemporary gay romance
Standalone

Excerpt

Luckily there were still some parking spaces outside the church hall where Maggie’s choir met. John made sure they arrived a little early so Maggie wouldn’t have to walk too far. She was managing well on one crutch, but she still tired easily. After he parked, he got out and hurried around to help her out of the passenger door.

“Thanks, love,” she said, patting him on the arm. “I can manage now.”

A vicious gust of wind whipped a strand of hair into her face. It was dark, still sleeting, and probably slippery underfoot. There was no way John was going to leave until she was safely indoors. “I’ll just see you inside. Let me take your bag.”

Maggie let him have it without argument, and he popped it over his arm. He hovered close to Maggie as she made her way slowly to the double doors. He held one open for her and was hit by a blast of warm air. Then he accompanied her inside as she crutched along the corridor towards an open door. Yellow light flooded out, and the sound of a tenor voice singing “I Can See Clearly Now” raised the hairs on the back of John’s neck with its pure, clear beauty.

“I thought you said the emphasis was on fun rather than perfection?” he said quietly. “He’s got quite a voice.”

“That’ll be Rhys, our choir leader,” Maggie said with a smile. “Come and meet him, even if you’re not staying.”

Maggie paused when she reached the doorway and put a finger to her lips. They listened and waited for Rhys to finish singing. John peered over Maggie’s shoulder, hoping for a glimpse of the man the voice belonged to. Rhys, John presumed, was alone in the room. With his back to the door, he stood at a table pushed to the edge of the room, shuffling through some papers as he sang. All John could see of him was that he was small and slight, and quite young, based on the cut of his clothes. A hood covered his hair.

When he finished, Maggie started clapping.

Rhys wheeled around. “Oh my God! You made me jump.” He pushed his hood down and his face lit up as he beamed. “Maggie. How are you?”

John’s eyes widened as he took in Rhys’s front view as he approached Maggie and gave her a careful hug. His hair, which was shaved at the back and sides, was long on top and dyed peacock blue. His eyebrow was pierced, his arms were covered with tattoos, and the front of his T-shirt was emblazoned with a glittery equals sign in rainbow colours. All in all, he was at least twenty years younger than John had expected and completely unlike how John would have imagined a choir leader to look. In this dingy church hall in their small market town, Rhys looked like a bird of paradise that had accidentally ended up in a cage full of sparrows.

Sales Links

The buy links are:
 *Imperfect Harmony will be exclusive to Amazon for 90 days. After that it will be available at all retailers.

About the Author

Jay lives just outside Bristol in the West of England, with her husband, two children, and two cats.

She comes from a family of writers, but she always used to believe that the gene for fiction writing had passed her by. She spent years only ever writing emails, articles, or website content. One day, she decided to try and write a short story–just to see if she could–and found it rather addictive. She hasn’t stopped writing since.

In the Contemporary Spotlight: Second Skin by Alex Whitehall (New Adult Release and giveaway)

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Second Skin by Alex Whitehall
Riptide Publishing
Cover Art by L.C. Chase

Read an Excerpt/Buy It Here

Hello, everybody! I’m Alex Whitehall, and I’m here today touring for my New Adult story, Second Skin, which is about Jay and Roswell, who are on a journey of love, acceptance, and self-discovery.

About Second Skin

When Jay heads to the university’s learning center for help with his math class, he doesn’t expect his tutor to be tall, dark, and handsome. But Roswell is all that and more, and their instant connection over cult movies, books, and TV shows quickly evolves into dating.

That’s when things get tricky.

Roswell might claim he doesn’t have issues with Jay being trans, but when he’s constantly insisting they “take it slow,” Jay’s not so sure. He’s been hurt before, and he’s not going to let it happen again.

But then Roswell reveals that he, too, has a few secrets under his skin.

About Alex Whitehall

If there are two types of people in the world, Alex Whitehall probably isn’t one of them, despite being a person. Their favorite pastimes include reading, horseback riding, sleeping, watching geek-tastic television, knitting, eating, and running. And wasting time on the internet. And spending glorious evenings laughing with friends.

While Alex prefers sleeping over doing anything else (except maybe eating), sometimes they emerge from the cave to be social and to hunt for food at the local market. They can be found blogging, reading, and tending after their aloe plants.

Connect with Alex:

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Giveaway

To celebrate the release of Second Skin, Alex is giving away $25 in Riptide credit. Leave a comment to enter the contest. Entries close at midnight, Eastern time, on April 16, 2016. Contest is NOT restricted to U.S. entries. Thanks for following the tour, and don’t forget to leave your contact info!