Category: Contemporary fiction

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

Rating 5 stars out of 5

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

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

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

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

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

 

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

“You what?”

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

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

“Biblical.”

“What?”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Book Details:

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

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

Rating:  5 stars out of 5

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The cover is erotic and fitting for the book.

Sales Links:      Amazon       Buy It Here

Book Details:

48 pages
Published October 10th 2014 by Alessandra Hazard

A BJ Review: Just a Bit Obsessed (Straight Guys #2) by Alessandra Hazard

  • Rating:  4 stars out of 5

Just a Bit Obsessed CoverAlexander Sheldon is a control freak who believes in monogamy. When his girlfriend invites another guy for a threesome, a guy who pushes all his buttons in a negative way, he’s none too pleased. But something unexpected starts to happen when Alex begins to touch Christian. He begins to want Christian more than his girlfriend.

Mila was excellent as the pushy girlfriend who opened a Pandora’s box that she found it impossible to close. Loved the fun, flirty, confident Christian in the first book and again here. Enjoyed watching Alexander, normally a cool customer, faced with such sexual and emotional frustration because he was so determined that he was straight.

I’m normally not a big fan of threesomes, so I wasn’t sure how much I’d enjoy the m/f/m (which quickly becomes m/m/f) in one of my m/m romances. However, I was pleased to see that the author toned down the m/f action enough that it worked okay for me. I actually found the believability in this scenario was higher than in the previous book of the series. Really brought to fore the inherent dangers that a threesome can bring.

The sexual tension, which seems to be this author’s forte and which is probably what draws me to this series so much, was absolutely delicious. I enjoyed the ending well enough I guess except that I would have liked a complete sex scene with only the two guys. That’s my main quibble.

Cover model is handsome but having it tilted like that is a bit unsettling to my eyes so I’m not a huge fan of the cover.

Sales Link:  Amazon  Buy It Here

Book Details:
162 pages
Published December 5th 2014 by Alessandra Hazard

Straight Guys series:

  • Straight Boy (Straight Guys #0.5)
  • Just a Bit Twisted (Straight Guys, #1)
  • Just a Bit Obsessed (Straight Guys #2)
  • Just a Bit Unhealthy (Straight Guys, #3)
  • Just a Bit Wrong (Straight Guys #4) – not yet released.

A MelanieM Review: My Cowboy Promises (The Cowboys #4) by Z.A. Maxfield

 

Rating: 4.25 stars out of 5

A real man needs a real love…

My Cowboy Promises coverTo become the man he’s meant to be, one cowboy will have to be the man he never wanted anyone to know he was…

Ryder Dent is a true-blue cowboy. A devoted son, husband and father, but one who is living a costly lie. When they were both young, Ryder and his closest female friend Andy thought they’d found the perfect solution to both their problems—she was single and pregnant, and he was secretly gay—so they got married and raised Jonas together.

When Ryder gets hurt at a party, his son’s new pediatrician comes to the rescue. The connection between Ryder and Dr. Declan Winters is sudden, powerful, and undeniable. Ryder loves Andy and the family they’ve created together—but they both need more. Can they pursue their hearts’ desire without destroying the life they’ve built and losing the son they love?

I have come to love Z. A.. Maxfield’s Cowboy series, each story provides such an interesting group of characters and couples all loosely intwined.   And most are having to deal with issues of acceptance…of their themselves, sexuality, and their ability to love.  My Cowboy Promises, the 4th in the Cowboy series,  connection’s to the previous story is that the ranch that Tripp Triplehorn and Lucho Reyes went to work on is owned by a powerful, controlling rancher Sterling Chandler, father to Andrea, wife of Ryder Dent and mother to their son.  But as usual in a ZAM story, what you see on the surface is illusion, the reality and truth lies somewhere underneath for them all.

What an awful, stressful situation the readers get dumped into.  Ryder Dent saw his life’s (and father’s expectations) explode when, as a teenager getting ready to go to college, instead marries his best friend in high school, a girl pregnant with a rodeo star’s baby.  That the rodeo star wants nothing to do with either Andrea or the baby goes without question as she’s underage.  Instead Andrea turns to her best friend to save her and they marry to the dismay/disgust/condemnation of their parents and community. But these kids are hiding an even bigger secret…Ryder is gay and Andrea knew the truth before they got married.

Now its five years later, and while both love Jonas, their son, neither Ryder or Andrea is particularly happy.  Maxfield is able to let us intimately into Ryder and Andrea’s lives, see the stress and exhaustion both young people are going through as well as the continuing condemnation of parents and community they continue to live with.  All that while still trying to lead lives of courage and stability for their growing son.  It’s just feels all so real.  Ryder at 23 is just realizing the extent of his sacrifice. He’s lonely, he’s working at his father’s store shouldering all the responsibilities and duties but none of the recognition and gratitude one would hope for from his disapproving parent.  He shares a bed (platonically) with Andrea in the small house bought for them by her wealthy father who never lets them forget that fact or how much he despises his daughter’s choices.  Andrea too is beginning to hate their lifestyle. She’s always been a bit wild and talented and wants to sing as a career, something her father would never allow.  The only bright spot in their lives?  Jonas a boy everyone loves deeply.  But as Ryder is not his real father, that too becomes an intense source of pain and stress, especially now that the difference in their eye colors is being remarked on in town.

I think reading this story, delving into the lives of Ryder and Andrea, most of us will recognize the gritty authenticity of lives lived with the “quiet desperation” that Z. A. Maxfield presents us with here.  Dead-end jobs, disapproving parents, pressure to conform to small town values and expectations, along with any potential way out of their situation feeling almost impossible.  That theme has been a reliable source for books, songs and movies for ages and it always works because that scenario resonates with those listening, reading or watching it unfold.  And mostly because there is a part of us, all of us, somewhere inside those characters at one point in our lives.   How I understood these people and cared about them from page 1.

The status quo of their lives, already shaky, shatters completely when the town doctor retires and a new GP moves into his practice and house.  That would be Dr. Declan Winters, who has his own demons to exercise and naivete when it comes to small town pressure and disapproval.  Declan was a little more of a stretch for me.  I found it a little unrealistic, at first, that given he had met with the older town doctor, been filled in on the town’s prejudices and still thought the doctor was overstating the situation.  But maybe that’s because I am so familiar with small town life, something that “big city” folk  might find charming on the exterior until reality intrudes.  Perhaps Declan is not such a stretch after all.

Through dialog and scenes Maxfield brings this increasingly rocky situation to life.  We have a gay new doctor in town, one who is quick to recognize the attraction that Ryder feels towards him, an attraction that confounds him when he has to treat Ryder and find out the cause of the wound is an accident by Ryder’s son.  We understand it when he believes Ryder is straight, why not?  Everyone else does.  Then there is poor Ryder,dealing with his “gayness” for real for the first time in his life when he can’t get the good doctor out of his mind or nightly dreams.  It’s a situation where hurt feelings, expectation, and miscommunication abound.  Then throw in an unhappy wife, a son with questions and it gets downright explosive.  What a manner in which to examine your sexuality, come of age and come out as the person you truly are.  That’s the fight in front of Ryder for most of the story.

I think some readers will get a little frustrated with Ryder’s inability to “grow some spine” as his and Andrea’s father exclaim. But remember his age, the time and place of his youth.  He’s respectful and one accustomed to shouldering responsibilities for everything that comes his way. And he’s  young.  I found him to be the most real character here.  I understood him and his background supports beautifully his actions throughout the story.  Great job, ZAM.

There will be places you will need to bring out the tissues and other scemes as hot as the Texas sun.  Did I love this story?  You betcha!  In fact, I love the entire series and highly recommend them all.  But My Cowboy Promises?  This might be my favorite story yet of the series.  Grab it up today and decide for yourself.

Cover art by ?.  I* like the cover, in fact I like all the covers for this series, from the design to the color scheme.

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

Book Details:

ebook
Expected publication: June 16th 2015 by InterMix
ISBN139780698175037
edition languageEnglish
url http://zamaxfield.com/the-cowboys/
seriesThe Cowboys #4

The Cowboy Series Include:

Celebrate with Author Heidi Belleau & Artist Vivian Ng on the REV New Cover Reveal and Collaboration! (giveaway)

  • ApplePolisher_400x600

New Cover Celebration with Author Heidi Belleau and artist Vivian Ng!

Nothing makes a reader sit up and take notice then the cover art on their books, whether the books are in print or eBook format.  Covers pull us in and give the readers hints to the story and characters.  What better way to bring a story back to life than a new cover?  Here we celebrate new covers for the Rear Entrance Video stories, the author and artist and their collaboration!

REV-revise_TourBanner

Re-Covering Rear Entrance Video – Vivian Ng’s Process

Hi, I’m Heidi Belleau! Over the coming days I’ll be touring the web showing off the gorgeous new covers for my queer NA rom-com series Rear Entrance Video, all about a diverse house of Vancouver roommates who wind up running a dilapidated porn store.

Today on the tour, Vivian Ng tells us about her process designing these gorgeous covers:

I got brought on to do these covers by Heidi and worked under the direction of L. C. Chase (who I’m gonna add are both really great to work with). Essentially I was told that I’d be doing a re-cover that would appeal more to a broader audience, which I interpreted as, play down the sauciness, and play up the portions of the book that speak to a general YA fiction crowd. I feel like it’s worth noting that I actually went and read all three books. I don’t think that’s usually something illustrators can afford time-wise, but I was given a generous amount of time and I knew I would be much more confident submitting whatever the product ended up being if I’d seen the work myself instead of relying entirely on summary docs and art direction (not that those things were lacking). Also I was genuinely curious about what was in the books!

So, just as a general theme all three books have something to do with the main character struggling with self-expression in their personal and professional lives. And what I picked up from reading them as a way to represent that on the covers was how Heidi centred on clothing as a significant part of how her characters constructed and expressed themselves. I also had this idea that flat colours, neatly arranged objects, and slightly messy hand-lettering already have some precedent in YA book covers. From that core idea I basically just had to play around with composition, text, and colour under L. C.’s direction.

Vivian brought us lots of different concept sketches, which we’ll be featuring later in the tour. Riptide’s art and marketing people worked with me to narrow down our favourite choices, then tweaked those designs until we had a very gorgeous, cohesive set of images that really spoke to the books.

Vivian’s focus on clothes and objects worked really great to represent:

Christian’s carefully structured image—occasionally knocked into disorder and chaos—for Apple Polisher,ApplePolisher_400x600

 

and Rob/Bobby’s experimentation with femininity and androgyny as he came into himself as bigender/genderfluid in Wallflower,

Wallflower_400x600

and lastly, Austin’s attempt to fit kink (and queerness) into his life and identity as a hockey player in Straight Shooter.

StraightShooter_400x600

Be sure to check out the series at Riptide (and don’t forget your coupon code to get a great deal on Apple Polisher!), and also give the artist, Vivian Ng a visit: http://viivus.tumblr.com.

Rear Entrance Video (Universe)

Welcome to Rear Entrance Video, Davie Street Village’s very own backdoor triple X store! The peep show booths are sticky, the sex toys are out of stock, and nobody’s collected any late fees in months.

Enter the store’s new manager, uptight teacher-hopeful Christian Blake, and his four misfit college roommates from Noah Hadley’s house for wayward gay boys: reluctant landlord Noah, mysterious bad boy Max, vain jock Austin, and awkward gamer geek Rob. Together, they’ll try to run the store . . . without letting everything they’re hiding—from the world and each other—run it into the ground.

Stories in the Rear Entrance Video universe include:

  • Apple Polisher (Rear Entrance Video, #1) by Heidi Belleau
  • Wallflower (Rear Entrance Video, #2) by Heidi Belleau
  • Straight Shooter (Rear Entrance Video,#3) by Heidi Belleau

 

 

About Heidi Belleau and Vivian Ng

 

Author: Heidi Belleau

Heidi Belleau was born and raised in small town New Brunswick, Canada. She now lives in the rugged oil-patch frontier of Northern BC with her husband, an Irish ex-pat whose long work hours in the trades leave her plenty of quiet time to write.
She has a degree in history from Simon Fraser University with a concentration in British and Irish studies; much of her work centred on popular culture, oral folklore, and sexuality, but she was known to perplex her professors with unironic papers on the historical roots of modern romance novel tropes. (Ask her about Highlanders!)

When not writing, you might catch her trying to explain British television to her newborn daughter or standing in line at the local coffee shop, waiting on her caramel macchiato.

Connect with Heidi:
Blog: www.heidibelleau.com
Twitter: @HeidiBelleau

Goodreads: goodreads.com/heidibelleau
Email: heidi.below.zero@gmail.com

Cover Artist: Vivian Ng

Vivian Ng is an illustrator and occasional comic artist living in Mississauga, Ontario, working mostly in watercolour, ink, and digital media. Vivi’s hobbies include watching children’s cartoons, reading fanfiction, and drawing entirely too much fanart.
http://viivus.tumblr.com
https://twitter.com/VViiNNG
http://cargocollective.com/viivus-draws/

Apple Polisher (REV #1)

Buy it here at Riptide Publishing.
This straight-A student has a dirty little secret.

ApplePolisher_400x600Christian Blake dreams of being a kindergarten teacher, but making the grade means maintaining a squeaky clean image: no drinking, no drugs, no swearing, no sex. And definitely no falling for his new roommate—tattooed bad-boy Max, who may or may not be a drug dealer.

Most of all, it means no working at a porn store. But Christian’s aunt has cancer, and her beloved Rear Entrance Video will go bankrupt if Christian doesn’t take over managerial duties. Soon enough, Christian finds himself juggling sticky twenty-five cent peep show booths, a blackmailing employee, and a demanding professor who likes to make an example of him.

And then there’s Max, who doesn’t know anything about the store, but hates Christian’s preppy sweater vests and the closet Christian forces him into when they’re together. Max just wants Christian to be himself—even though Max is keeping secrets of his own. Christian struggles to find the impossible balance between his real life and the ideal one he thinks a teacher needs to live . . . all while trying to keep his aunt’s dream alive without losing his own.

Wallflower (REV #2)

Buy/find out more about Wallflower here at Riptide Publishing.
This gamer geek has a pretty little secret.

Wallflower_400x600Art student and MMORPG addict Robert Ng has always been a loner, but he’s recently made it his goal to make more (IRL) friends. Which is how he winds up working nights at Rear Entrance Video, shilling sketchy porn and blowup dolls as a favor to his roommate. The longer he works there, though, the more he realizes he’ll never be truly happy until he becomes the person he is online: his female persona, Bobby.

Bobby is cuter and funnier than Rob is, and a thousand times more popular with boys. Becoming Bobby IRL presents its own set of challenges, though . . . especially when you’re sitting on the fence between two genders, only one of which has caught the attention of your seriously cute customer/classmate.

Dylan Ford is a six-foot Inuit comic book artist who always says what’s on his mind, and screw anyone who doesn’t like it. As rough as he appears, though, Dylan has a soft spot for Rob. But will out-and-proud Dylan still want Rob if he’s not all man?

Straight Shooter (REV #3)

Buy/find out more about Straight Shooter here at Riptide Publishing.

This macho jock has a crooked little secret.

StraightShooter_400x600College hockey player Austin Puett is in trouble. Unless he starts treating his flamboyantly gay roommate with respect, he’ll lose his room and his job at Rear Entrance Video. But Austin’s got a not-so-straight secret of his own: nothing turns him on more than insults implying he’s gay—even though he’s definitely not!—and all his old coping methods have stopped working.
Pure desperation drives him to rent a Mischievous Pictures porn flick about straight men tricked into servicing Puck, a male dominant. Instead of letting off steam, though, it just leaves him craving more, more, more, and suddenly, Austin finds himself at Mischievous Pictures Studios for an audition. After all, you can be Gay For Pay and still be straight . . . right?

But meeting Liam Williams, the real person behind Puck, confuses Austin even more. Liam really seems to like him as a person, and Austin likes him back. And while Gay For Pay’s okay, what does it make Austin if he still wants Liam when the cameras aren’t rolling?

 

Contest

Giveaway at Riptide Publishing….

Use coupon code REVRECOVER to receive $2.00 off the ebook price of Apple Polisher!

In the Book Spotlight: The Playhouse (a Superpowered Love Story) by Katey Hawthorne (guest post and giveaway)

Playhouse_500

The Playhouse (a Superpowered Love story) by Katey Hawthorne

STRW In The Spotlight Header
Published by Looseid LLC
Cover Artist P.L. Nunn

Here’s Katey Hawthorne on writing her first F/F story and her Superpowered Love series….

Hello, and thanks for letting me drop in, Melanie! I’m running around celebrating because the very first f/f book in my Superpowered Love series, The Playhouse, just came out yesterday. It’s about—well, yes, there are superpowers, but it all takes place in a summerstock theater. Sounds like a weird combo, but it works… hopefully.

There are some pretty serious undercurrents in the book too, though, and that’s what I want to talk about a little here. While Lily’s dream is to make her beloved Playhouse more viable, Genevieve, the starlet who has her full and undivided romantic attention all summer, brings new goals to the table. Goals like better representation for people of color and minorities on the small town stage. (See also, Genevieve’s character stat entry on my website, where she goes on about her Les Miserables fanfiction.) Lily is, of course, delighted at the prospect and throws her heart and soul into that, as well.

Now to get personal. The reason I write queer characters all the time is because I wanted more of that as a kid. I wanted to see myself reflected in characters who lived crazy lives, loved interesting people, and yeah, maybe even had some superpowers. I’m writing the books I wanted to read, books that have queer people finding their happiness. But there’s more work to be done. More women, more people of color, more gender non-conforming people, more responsible representation of all kinds is my goal.

 Giveaway: So tell me: what would you like to see more represented in fiction? What pieces of you and your friends do you think deserve more reflection and attention? Leave a comment with a suggestion or thought, your email address where you can be contacted  and be entered to win a copy of The Playhouse!

Must be 18 years of age or older to enter. Author is providing the book, thank you, Katey!

The Playhouse Blurb

Summer has been Lily McBride’s favorite time of year since she was a kid, because that’s when the Brookesville Playhouse opens its doors. Now that she’s an adult and works as their tech director, Lily wants more for her beloved Playhouse: a larger audience, a longer season, and exciting shows to draw new patrons.

This year, though, she also wants Genevieve Mason, a pretty starlet-in-the-making from the local university, recruited for the season’s tech crew. Genny throws her heart and soul into the place too, adding her own dreams of representation to the ‘must-have’ list, and using her sweet voice and surprising flare for pyrotechnics to draw the crowds in droves. They work so well together, it’s not long before their summer crush blossoms into a steamy affair.

Lily’s falling hard, but always feels like Genny’s holding something back. And then there’s the dreaded Brookesville Arts Council—supposed to be a support system for all things cultural, instead dragging the Playhouse down with their old-fashioned stubbornness. There are a lot of hurdles to jump and egos to deflate before they can get what they want, both for the theater and from each other.

Sales Links:   Loose id   (special sales price of $4.99)

STRW Author Bio and Contacts

Author bio: Katey Hawthorne is an avid reader and writer of superpowered romance, even though the only degree she holds is in the history of art. (Or, possibly, because the only degree she holds is in the history of art.) Originally from the Appalachian foothills of West Virginia, she currently lives in Ohio. In her spare time she enjoys comic books, B-movies, loud music, Epiphones, and Bushmills.

Contact/follow Katey at: