Category: LGBTQ Book Reviews

Blog Tour for That Feeling When by S. M. James (author interview, excerpt and giveaway)

BLOG TOUR

Book Title: That Feeling When

Author: S. M. James

Publisher: May Books

Cover Artist: Story Styling

Genre/s: YA, LGBT, contemporary romance

Length: 77,000 Words/343 pages

Release Date: September 16, 2018 (Available now in paperback)

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Scattered Thoughts and Rogue  Words is happy to host S. M. James today. Thank you for stopping by! Tell us a little about yourself and your writing goals.

Congratulations on your new release. Please tell us a little bit about it. What’s your favorite aspect or part of the story? Do you have a favorite character? Who/Why?

Yikes, yeah. It’s nerve-wracking stuff, especially as this book kicks off a 6-book series of stand alones PLUS their short stories. So we’ll see how that goes.

That Feeling When is a dual POV YA, which alternates chapters between Landon and Archie as they figure out who they are, and how far they’ll go for love. As for a favourite character, I don’t think there’s any way to pick. I finished writing this book and actually missed these guys, which is one of the totally weird and wonderful things about being a writer. And now I’ve finished writing To Be Honest, I feel the same way about those guys.

As for my favourite part, there’s a certain scene involving a camera, an audition, and a whole lot of trust, that really builds Archie and Landon’s relationship up to another level and was a lot of fun to write. It was great to see Archie finally let go of his insecurities.

  • What is your favorite underappreciated novel?

Noah Can’t Even by Simon James Green. Holy moly that book was hilarious and I seriously rec it everywhere I go. I can’t remember a book actually making me laugh out loud before—the situations Noah kept getting himself into just got more and more ridiculous. And the sequel lived up to it, which is always a great surprise. I need to reread this one soon.

  • Does your research lead to bizarre internet searches? If so, tell us about some of your wackier searches, or ones that would make you nervous if your computer were ever confiscated by law enforcement.

Heh, umm. You could say that. There have been bombs, automatic weapons, and disposing of bodies, because what else do characters in a fantasy novel need to know? For one of my genre novels I had to look up how long it took for a dead body to decompose, and there was this post about ‘Coffin births’ and DON’T LOOK IT UP because gross! So gross! (And if you did look it up, sorry to scar you for life but you were warned.) As you can tell, I’m still not past it.

The most interesting thing I’ve researched for contemporary is anterograde amnesia. Some of the stories from people living with it were almost beyond comprehension. For my next novel, I’m continuing my research into Cystic Fibrosis and the impact it has on day to day life.

  • Who would play the main characters in a movie about your book?

Haha there’s a reason I don’t cast movies.

I feel like I should have a Pinterest board for this kind of question but it is appallingly hard to find Aboriginal actors. I did watch an interview with Mark Coles Smith once, who may not look exactly like Landon, but had the same kind of boyish charm.

For Archie, man, take your pick. Brenton Thwaites, Billy Unger, Nick Robertson. If they can manage surly and vulnerable, we’re good.

  • What is your favorite quote?

“Of course it is happening inside your head, Harry. But why on earth should that mean that it is not real?”

(Five guesses what this is from).

 

 

Blurb

Dance Academy reject, Archie Corrigan, resents the stereotype guy ballet dancers are gay. Because he isn’t. At all. Forced to reassess his life goal at Camp Crystal Cove, it’s by sheer dumb luck he meets Landon Summers, who turns everything Archie was sure of into chaos.

Poor boy turned teen heartthrob, Landon Summers, is the name on everyone’s lips. With his unexpected leap to fame, his agent advises him to keep his bi status on the down low. Not a problem! Until Landon meets Archie.

Their unexpected friendship leads to an inevitable kiss, but their moment is caught in high definition and used as fuel for blackmail. If the truth gets out, Landon’s career could be over, and Archie will be forced to acknowledge the one thing he’s fought to deny.

But how do you go back to your average life once you’ve experienced That Feeling When … you’re finally happy?

Buy Links – Available in Kindle Unlimited 

Amazon US

Amazon UK 

Excerpt

Landon Summers is into guys. I think he likes you.

And while Meredith didn’t say anything about me, there was something way too

knowing in her look. Everyone else seems too into their own lives to be paying us any

attention, and even when we’re announced winners of the trivia, my celebration doesn’t

crack the surface chill that’s taken over me.

Meredith’s wrapped her arm through mine, and she’s cheering with the others, one hand

in the air.

I’m a week in the past. Watching Landon pull on that stupid costume in the dark. The

spark in his eyes as he thanked me. The brush of his skin on mine.

How was that only a week ago?

Why can’t I go back and enjoy that moment more? Savor my time with him?

Really take it all in, before he went and messed it all up.

About the Author

SM James in an Australian author who writes books for teens about squishy sweet characters. While not writing, SM is a readaholic and netflix addict who regularly lives on a sustainable diet of chocolate and coffee. Member of SCBWI. Unapologetically dishing out HEAs for LGBT+ characters.

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Giveaway

Enter the Rafflecopter Giveaway for a chance to win one of the following prizes:

1 x Paperback copy of That Feeling When (US only)

2 x $15 Amazon gift card (international)

3 x eBook copy of That Feeling When (international)

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A MelanieM Review: In This Iron Ground (Natural Magic #1) by Marina Vivancos

Rating:  5 stars out of 5

 

Damien is nine years old when his parents die. What should have been the worst moment of his life begins a journey shadowed by loneliness and pain. The night of a full moon, four years and seven foster homes later, Damien flees to the forest, desperate to escape everything.

Instead, he finds the Salgado pack, and the earth beneath his feet shifts. Damien has seen the Salgado children in his school: Koko, who is in his class, and Hakan, two years older and infinitely unreachable. Damien is suddenly introduced into a world that had only ever existed in his imagination, where there is magic in the forest and the moon. He meets creatures that look like monsters, but Damien knows that monsters have the same face as anybody else.

Over the years, Damien and Hakan grow closer. First, just as friends and foster brothers in the Salgado house, and then into something heated and breathless when Damien joins Hakan at college. Despite what he may yearn for in the darkest part of the night, Damien knows, deep down in that bruised and mealy part of his core, that he’s not good enough to be part of the Salgado family, their pack. He’s not worthy of calling Hakan his home.

Even though he knows in the end it’ll hurt him, he’ll hold onto this for as long as he can.

In This Iron Ground (Natural Magic #1) by Marina Vivancos is as hard a book to review as it was at times to read. It’s also a magical, beautifully written, moving, and literary novel.  Full of unbelievable torture and pain and yet still manages to include flights of hope and passages of teenage normality and then flights of wooded spirituality.  And all the time it’s flowing out from the  wounded soul and form of Damien who ages throughout the story starting from the age of nine when he enters the foster system an orphan.

I wasn’t sure what to expect from that blurb but what I got was an  almost epic exploration of Damien’s journey through life. We jump into Damien’s life with a harrowing look at the  foster system.  Then we and Damien plunge into hell when he is delivered into the  horror of a  foster home and  its carers that will set a pattern for him for the next years that will have you wanting to scream. It’s here, listening to Damien’s “voice” as he suffers, withdraws, and internalizes the messages he’s hearing that the book becomes almost unbearable to read. The abuse he’s suffering during these chapters are the ones that warrants the notes at the bottom of this review.  The damage done, not physically, but mentally and emotionally to Damien is such that he carries it with him through the story, not dealing with how much it has truly affected him until 3/4 of the way through.

But while he’s enduring this, mind you he’s only 13, there’s also hope in the form of a pack of shifters unlike any I’ve read about in other stories.  Vivancos brings in a pack that  is layered with a Earth  religion, a spirituality you can feel amazingly, a pack family that comes forward to rescue, support, and finally welcome the human child.  I won’t spoil how incredible a job the author has done with the Soldado pack but for me they became as alive as a walk in the woods.  They  breathed life and that made their connections to Damien even more magical.

The book is broken up into two parts and yes at times is felt a little long as Damien and Hakan went off to college but this is still such a journey for Damien I can see why the author wanted to include each and every scene.Special details were giving to Damien’s emotional and mental health recovery which is an important element here.  Damien could not recover from the horrific abuse he suffered on his own.  He needed professional help, and with the gentle assistance of his friends, lover and pack, he gets the therapy he needs. Some of his session scenes make a powerful but quiet impact.  It’s a responsible thing to do, in my mind, after reading all the scenes in the beginning, for the reader to see Damien finally emerging into hope and light.

Yes, I loved this story and the amazing characters in the pack.  I see that the author is turning it into a series and can’t wait to see where it’s going next.  I do recommend it but please do pay attention to the warnings below.

 

Cover art: Natasha Snow.  That is a gorgeous cover by Natasha Snow.  The mountains, woods, and wolves.  Perfect.

Buy Links: Amazon US | Amazon UK

Book Details:

Kindle Edition, 1st edition, 325 pages
Published September 3rd 2018
ASINB07GNS5MZ4
Edition LanguageEnglish
Series Natural Magic #1

CONTENT WARNING: This book contains themes of emotional and (nonsexual) physical child abuse and the subsequent emotional, cognitive, and behavioural impacts.   Trigger warning also includes scene of suicide attempt by minor, physical and  sexual child abuse.

This story contains sexually explicit scenes between consenting adults and is meant for an adult audience.

A Barb the Zany Old Lady Review: One-Eyed Royals (Seven of Spades #4) by Cordelia Kingsbridge

Rating: 5 stars out of 5

OMG! Get ready for an exciting roller coaster ride, right from the beginning!  Every page held drama. Every. Single. Page. I am so excited by this series—it’s incredible.  I want everyone to read it so I can chat with them about all the emotional twists and turns, ups and downs, and the heartwarming and gut-wrenching action that takes place between these pages.  It’s incredible that the author can continually best the previous book in the series and hold my attention for the length of the book.  I never, repeat NEVER, sit still to read an entire book, but here, except for a few hours of sleep, I did not put this one down.

Where to start?  Well, if you read the previous books you know the strain Dominic and Levi are under—not just from the Seven of Spades who continues to F up their lives, but also with each other. Have no fear though—just because they aren’t together, they manage to find their way to bed a few times and survive the morning-after guilt. 

There’s two concurrent plots going in this one: a kidnapping/extortion ring who murder one of their victims and the Seven of Spades exacting revenge, on behalf of Levi, on the four men who beat him senseless in a gay-bashing when he was in college. They were never IDed, never caught, but Seven finds them and offers them to Levi one by one as a birthday gift.  Oh, joy. 

Those kidnappers, meanwhile, are continuing to kidnap and when payment isn’t made quickly, they gouge out the eye of their victim and send it to the family. The author isn’t satisfied with getting Levi’s and Dominic’s paths to cross multiple times during this investigation, she adds to the drama by having someone close to them kidnapped.  Not saying who, ’cause spoilers…  And then, of course, Dom’s losing his possessions left and right to pay his outstanding gambling debts and to have seed money for more.  Levi’s losing too. He’s losing his temper, losing his appetite, and ultimately losing his job.  There’s so much packed into these pages that’s it’s impossible to even highlight all of it. It just doesn’t stop. Not for a minute. Skip a page and you’ve missed another plot twist.  I love this story, did I mention that?  Love it! 

Don’t despair, however. If you love these guys, hang in for the ending. It’s a pip and thankfully not as much of a cliffhanger as the last one. But, let’s face it, with one more book to go, there’s no way I’d miss a chance to read it, no matter how this one ended. 

Honestly, if you are looking for high quality action adventure, a mystery that spans a five book series—who is the Seven of Spades?—romance, hot sex, addiction and recovery, anger management, murder, mayhem and more, this is the book—and series—to pick up.

The cover by Garrett Leigh, like others in the series, features playing cards, in this case, the cards are set against a dark background and blood is dripping from them onto the floor. 

Sales Links:  Riptide Publishing | Amazon

Book Details:

ebook, 366 pages
Published September 10th 2018 by Riptide Publishing
ISBN139781626496392
Edition LanguageEnglish
Series Seven of Spades :

Kill Game

Trick Roller

Cash Plays

One-Eyed Royals

A Chip and a Chair – coming soon the last book in the series.

A Lucy Review: Promises by Ruby Moone

Rating: 4.25 stars out of 5

Charles Hawkins is a former soldier who was saved from death in Napoleon’s war by his friend, Edward.  Now Edward has come begging a favor.  He needs Charles to host his youngest brother, Sebastian, for a month at his remote country estate and try to convince Sebastian not to get their father to purchase a commission to allow him to go to war as well.  Edward survived the war but two of their brothers did not.  Edward is afraid that Sebastian is going into it as “….nothing more than another jaunt.”  He believes his brother to be “… young, foolish and seemingly incapable.”  This is a big favor to ask because Charles wants, no, needs, his solitude.  But how do you say no to the man who saved your life? 

Sebastian’s arrival at Charles’ home is less than exceptional.  In fact, he arrives so drunk he falls out of the carriage, face plants, tells Charles he is pretty and then sleeps for hours.  It is not an auspicious start to the month.  Upon sobering up, however, Sebastian is a different person.  He is quiet, kind and polite.  Charles doesn’t regale him with horror stories of war.  Instead, he questions why Sebastian expects his family to pay for things.  “Hardly a babe in arms.  Why do you feel your family should provide everything for you?” 

Sebastian has a secret, however, and it is one that has made him feel inferior and useless in every way.  He doesn’t feel there is anything he can be good at.  He wants the respect of his brother and father, to make them proud, and he feels fighting is the only way to do that. 

Sebastian needs to move.  He “…just wanted to get out into the sunshine, take off his coat, and do something physical before he burst.”  This is another thing that makes his family look askance at him.  Why can’t he just be like the others?  Add in that all his brothers resemble each other – dark haired and short – while he is fair and tall and it makes him feel more alienated.  I have to say that I loved Sebastian.  He tries so hard, suffers so much and is such a good person. He’s trying to be the best he can for his family in any way he knows how.   

The estate has only Charles and his two manservants, Coulson and Blackstone. They are loyal to Charles and as Sebastian begins to work around the estate, they become friends with him.  Charles is much more reserved than any of the others, but he has some truly terrible memories of the war and the guilt and pain weigh on him greatly.  That being said, he is also a kind, intelligent man who listens to Sebastian and tries to help him.

The story is relationship focused, not just on sex or love, but on learning to trust.  There is a point where Charles doesn’t react well to a confidence Sebastian shares.  He doesn’t yell or carry on, he just doesn’t understand the import of it until later and when he does, he makes a point to do what is right by Sebastian.  Loved that.  Historical M/M romances are sometimes so dependent on suspending belief for the relationship, as being hung is a real threat, but the way this worked out made me believe it could work.  I loved the last line and felt it was so fitting to the feel of the story.

This is a lovely story and I would recommend it particularly for fans of historical romance. 

The cover art by Written Ink Designs is a Sebastian against the books and desk of Charles.  I thought it was fitting to the mood of the story.

Sales Links:  JMS Books LLC  |  Amazon

Book Details:

ebook, 136 pages
Published August 25th 2018 by JMS Books
ISBN139781634867252
Edition Language English

A Chaos Moondrawn Review: Sentinel (Until You #2) by Karrie Roman

Rating: 3.5 stars out of 5

This is my first book by this author and book two in the series called Until You, but can be read as a standalone. However, I think reading the first book would be best for maximum enjoyment. At the beginning Lucas and Ryan, who are famous from being on a TV show, are giving a press conference to ask for privacy as they take a break from whatever traumatic thing happen to them in the first book. Ethan, their personal bodyguard, is the focus of this book.

Ethan had been living under the radar, but was brought back into the spotlight due to guarding the two stars. There was something about losing his whole family eight years ago due to his brother. Slowly, we get a recap interspersed throughout the book about some sort of trial against his brother who was a serial killer of young girls. None of Ethan’s guilt made sense to me until chapter nine, when we find out Stewart was a cop also. I’m not sure if I would have known that if I read the first book or not. Anyway, the only reasons it matters is that the topic is part of a pivotal scene where Ethan opens up to Ben, and his reluctance to go to the police is more believable. Ben is our other main character. He has been Ethan’s colleague and friend for the last two years, and we know Ben is in love with him. Ben is also friends with Ryan. Lucas and Ryan obviously consider Ethan family.

Ethan has feelings for Ben, who somehow got shot and has been in the hospital. Because he is afraid Ben will be mad that he never trusted him with the truth about his past, Ethan basically quits his job with the agency they work for, takes a new private job as a personal bodyguard to Ryan and Lucas, and disappeared, refusing to visit Ben in the hospital. Ethan knows there is something there between them, but the horrible rejection he faced from family, friends, and colleagues in the past makes him wary of being vulnerable.

Cameron is Ben’s brother, a rescue pilot for the sheriff’s department in the town called Cody, where Ethan’s sister Maggie lives. She finally finds and calls him after eight years because she has cancer and her ex, Peter, took their twin girls Maya and Riley away. She was afraid to go to the police since Peter was raised in a religious cult run by Arnold Piper, who has enough control over the group that a Jonestown scenario is likely. Once the set-up is done, this book is an action adventure with a rescue mission. Things never have a chance to get dull–there is always something happening. While Ethan’s background is in law enforcement, Ben was an army sniper and they lean heavily on his experience to plan the rescue. This gives Ben his chance to show Ethan how good they can be together and Ethan his chance to have the real intimacy he has been craving. The men work out their relationship throughout the mission.

I love that Ben and Ethan do those cute, stupid things that couples do and talk about the stupid things couple talk about. Once Ethan knows Ben loves him, knows Ben won’t leave him, he falls into this relationship. The mission makes Ben have to open up to Ethan about his past in the military and with the government. The ethics here are murky, so if you like your white hats super shiny, this may not be the book for you.

We get a lot of information about the cult and I found one of the lines very apropos of our current political climate: “it was hard to convince people they were living in a shared delusion when they were still essentially living in it.”

A major player is Alec Banner, an FBI agent that served with Ben in the military. No one wants a Waco either, so the author was good at building the tension with the cult, but it was a bit of a letdown that all the actual action here with the compound happens off page. This makes sense though because we stay with Ben and Ethan’s perspective during the faceoff with authorities. Another major player is the cult leader’s son, Zach who helps them to save the children. I would expect a future book with both of these characters. Zach has been raised without any idea about different types of sexuality and seeing Ben and Ethan together is eye opening. I will say the author made me care about the victims of the cult and then we have no idea what happens to them; being rescued and thrown into a world they know nothing about off page.

Yes, Maggie living in the same town as Ben’s brother is a huge coincidence. Yes, the plot is a little over the top. Yes, it was lucky that they had help from former cultists just when they needed it. Yes, they are making out in the woods in the middle of a mission. So what? This is entertaining, cute, hot, and romantic, rather than realistic. Since I didn’t read the first book, Ryan and Lucas are two dimensional to me right now and I don’t know anything about the Krispins (they own the company Ben and Ethan worked for as bodyguards), who it seems will still be involved as the series moves forward. I liked this book, so I will likely go back and read the first book before continuing on in this series.

The cover art is by Natasha Snow. I believe it shows Ben with the wilderness they had to hike through in the background. It seems a little placid for an action adventure.

Book Details:
ebook
Published September 10th 2018 by NineStar Press
ISBN139781949340693
Edition LanguageEnglish
URLhttps://ninestarpress.com/product/sentinel/
Series Until You :

Cover Reveal – Love’s Trials (Revolutionary Heart #2) by Janice Jarrell (excerpt)

COVER REVEAL

Book Title: Love’s Trials (Revolutionary Heart, Book 2)

Author:  Janice Jarrell

Publisher: Janice Jarrell

Cover Artist: Robin E. Vuchnich  

Release Date: October 12, 2018

Genre/s: Contemporary Gay Romance

Blurb

After half a lifetime spent in short-term liaisons that allowed no intimacy, charismatic Irish police officer, Colin Campbell, found the love of his life. Dark-eyed, steady Joshua Abrams burned through Colin’s emotional barriers and taught him to look at life through new eyes, eyes that made room for the love and closeness he had always denied himself. Deeply in love and completely happy, their life together remains idyllic and their fiery passion for each other seems limitless.

They survive the Charlottesville ‘Unite the Right’ riots, though not without scars. But later that month Colin’s position with the campus police force places him in charge of an informant program designed to crack a dangerous drug ring. Fully aware of the risks, he swears to Joshua that he will oversee the program without becoming directly involved. But Colin’s promise begins to crumble when he becomes the only one who can save a young Nigerian exchange student from a deadly drug lord.

Excerpt

The morning of the ‘Unite the Right’ riots in Charlottesville.

Joshua poured a cup of coffee and took the seat next to Colin. “I damn joined the counter-protesters last night.”

Colin wheeled to face him, his eyes narrowed to dark slits. “Do not do that!” He grasped Joshua’s arm in a tight grip. “I mean it, Josh. Do not come down there!”

“It was a fleeting impulse which David immediately quashed. He told me he’d stop me if he had to tie me to a chair.”

“Thank god,” Colin said, still gripping Joshua’s arm tightly. “Josh, I mean it. Please stay home. I understand why you want to join the counter-protestors and fight these Nazi bastards and I love you for it. But it’s going to get ugly down there today, Josh. Very ugly. Especially for someone with your ethnic heritage. Knowing you’re safe at home is the only way I’ll be able to do my job.”

Joshua frowned, but nodded. “I understand.” He leaned forward to kiss Colin’s cheek. “If you promise to hang onto your phone and to call me when you can.”

“I will,” Colin told him. “But don’t worry too much if you don’t hear from me. I suspect I’m going to have my hands full.”

“How bad could it get today, Colin?” Joshua asked.

Colin’s brow furrowed. “You know what we’re dealing with. I’m afraid it could get very bad today.”

A rustling at their back door startled both of them, and they turned to see David and Nate walking through their utility room carrying bags obviously filled with food.

“We brought breakfast!” Nate told them, setting the bags on the table. “Get some plates.”

Colin rose. “I can’t stay, I’m due at the station.” He bent over the table and sniffed the contents. “Smells good though!”

David took Colin’s hand in both of his. “Please be safe.”

Colin nodded but did not speak then turned to accept Nate’s hug. “Thanks,” he whispered.

“Don’t worry about Josh. We’ll be with him.”

Colin nodded then turned to Joshua who stood watching, teeth clenched against the dread that filled his mind and heart.

“Gotta go, babe,” Colin said.

Joshua walked to his side, wrenching his mind away from his fears, resolved that Colin’s last view of him today would reflect his faith in the man he loved and the courage to face whatever this day might bring.

They embraced tightly but neither man spoke. Then Colin drew in a deep breath and kissed Joshua lightly… briefly. “Chin up, bud,” he said. “Be home later.”

“Please be safe,” Joshua said, his voice a hoarse whisper.

“Always my intention,” Colin replied with a quick grin, then his expression grew grim. “Remember what I said, Joshua. No matter what you see… stay home!”

Joshua hissed out a breath, his mind burned with reservations. But he couldn’t bring himself to add to the stresses already weighing on his lover and gave a tight nod. “Got it.”

Colin bent toward him, his lips brushing Joshua’s ear. “Ta`mo chori istigh ionat,” he whispered, Gaelic for ‘my heart is within you’, a phrase Joshua knew well.

“Ani Ohev Otcha,” Joshua choked out, responding with the same words in Hebrew.

Without another word, Colin wheeled and strode out the back door. He didn’t see Joshua sink into a kitchen chair and collapse forward, the heels of both hands pressed to his forehead.

About the Author

My name is Janice Jarrell. I am a retired grandmother who lives in Seattle, WA. I have two children and three grandsons. I’ve been writing gay romance since I was twelve years old, only back then it wasn’t called ‘gay romance’. In fact, it had no name at all. It was the fifties, and it was worth your life to admit to being gay, let alone confess to being a girl who constantly fantasized about relationships between gay men. Hell, I didn’t even know what a homosexual was. I lived on a farm out in the sticks in a tiny Michigan village and I’d never, to my knowledge, even heard the word. I just knew I loved the thought of boy on boy romance. I just knew that there was something hot going on between Tom Corbett and his Space Cadets and all those guys on ‘Combat’.

I wrote slash fanfiction for 30 years, writing over 337 stories, some as short as 100 words (a drabble) some as long as a series which was over 119,012 words. I enjoy writing my stories. I enjoyed the feedback I received from my readers. It was a creative release I’d been searching for my entire life and I blessed the Internet for leading me to this artistic oasis for my spirit.

Love’s Magic was my very first step into writing my own characters. I will always be grateful the slash fanfiction community for nurturing the budding author until she was ready to blossom into a fully realized novelist. It’s been an amazing thing to watch the gay community’s growth over these past twenty years. My own journey has echoed theirs in many ways, and I’m grateful to all those gay activists who fought to give the gay community the rights and privileges they always deserved.

I’m also grateful to the gay romance community, readers, authors, publishers and promoters, who are making these, my retirement years, the most creative ones of my life. When I’m not writing, I’m traveling, walking, hiking, knitting, crocheting, and weaving.

I’m very excited about the upcoming release of my second contemporary gay romance novel, Love’s Trials. Those of you who fell in love with Joshua and Colin in Love’s Magic are in for a treat because they are the STARS of Love’s Trials, though they may not thank me for it given the very difficult ‘trials’ they are about to face.

me purple hair

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Review Tour and Giveaway for In This Iron Ground (Natural Magic #1) by Marina Vivancos

 

Buy Links: Amazon US | Amazon UK
 
Cover Design: Natasha Snow
 
Length: 85,000 words approx.
 
Blurb
 

Damien is nine years old when his parents die. What should have been the worst moment of his life begins a journey shadowed by loneliness and pain. The night of a full moon, four years and seven foster homes later, Damien flees to the forest, desperate to escape everything.

Instead, he finds the Salgado pack, and the earth beneath his feet shifts. Damien has seen the Salgado children in his school: Koko, who is in his class, and Hakan, two years older and infinitely unreachable. Damien is suddenly introduced into a world that had only ever existed in his imagination, where there is magic in the forest and the moon. He meets creatures that look like monsters, but Damien knows that monsters have the same face as anybody else.

Over the years, Damien and Hakan grow closer. First, just as friends and foster brothers in the Salgado house, and then into something heated and breathless when Damien joins Hakan at college. Despite what he may yearn for in the darkest part of the night, Damien knows, deep down in that bruised and mealy part of his core, that he’s not good enough to be part of the Salgado family, their pack. He’s not worthy of calling Hakan his home.

Even though he knows in the end it’ll hurt him, he’ll hold onto this for as long as he can.

CONTENT WARNING: This book contains themes of emotional and (nonsexual) physical child abuse and the subsequent emotional, cognitive, and behavioural impacts.

 

Read Scattered Thoughts and Rogue Words 5 stars Review here.
Author Bio
 
When Marina was a child she couldn’t sleep. Night after dissolving night she just couldn’t sleep. Nothing much worked – until she started making up stories in her head. Suddenly, the transition into unconsciousness was a smooth dive into calm waters.


Marina is currently in a period of sleepless upheaval, and she hopes writing down the stories in her head will cast the same spell it did decades ago.


Marina hopes to write in a variety of romance sub-genres, from contemporary to supernatural to sci-fi. Her style, however, tends to focus on character-centred stories that explore different facets of the human experience, such as mental health. She also enjoys writing explicit, drawn-out sex scenes, so expect those to be a prominent feature of her stories.


Marina tends to keep to herself unless prompted, so don’t be shy in approaching her! 
 

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In the Spotlight Tour and Giveaway: One-Eyed Royals (Seven of Spades #4) by Cordelia Kingsbridge

One-Eyed Royals (Seven of Spades #4) by Cordelia Kingsbridge
Riptide Publishing
Cover By: Garrett Leigh

Sales Links:  Riptide Publishing | Amazon

Scattered Thoughts and Rogue Words is happy to host Cordelia Kingsbridge here today on tour for One-Eyed Royals, her latest release in the Seven of Spades series.  Welcome, Cordelia!

♠️

 

Thanks for checking out the blog tour for One-Eyed Royals, the fourth book in the Seven of Spades series!

We left Levi and Dominic broken up and broken-hearted. But there are new threats facing Las Vegas, and crossing paths on a case again is just their luck…

 

About One-Eyed Royals

Spoiler Alert! The following blurb contains spoilers for Cash Plays, book three of Seven of Spades.

Shattered by their devastating breakup, Detective Levi Abrams and PI Dominic Russo find themselves at war right when they need each other most. While Dominic is trapped in a vicious cycle of addiction, Levi despairs of ever catching the Seven of Spades. The ruthless vigilante’s body count continues to climb, and it’s all Levi can do to keep up with the carnage.

When Levi’s and Dominic’s paths keep crossing in the investigation of a kidnapping ring with a taste for mutilation, it feels like history repeating itself. Thrown together by fate once again, they reluctantly join forces in their hunt for the mastermind behind the abductions.

But the Seven of Spades hates sharing the spotlight, and they have an ace in the hole: a new batch of victims with a special connection to Levi. Their murders send shockwaves through Las Vegas and change the rules of the game forever.

The Seven of Spades has upped the ante. If Levi and Dominic don’t play their cards right, they’ll end up losing everything.

 

About the Seven of Spades Series

Las Vegas has never seen a serial killer like the Seven of Spades.

The self-styled vigilante is on a mission to cut down the wicked and treacherous, and Sin City has no shortage of targets for their bloody wrath. What happens in Vegas . . . ends with the Seven of Spades’s calling card on a grisly corpse.

Standing against the killer are Levi Abrams, a dedicated homicide detective locked in a constant struggle to restrain his own dark side, and bounty hunter Dominic Russo, a charming rogue with a heavy secret weighing on his shoulders.

The hunt for the Seven of Spades sends Levi and Dominic on a collision course, igniting a passionate relationship forged in conflict and sealed with blood. Together they’re stronger than the sum of their parts, but a wily, elusive serial killer isn’t the only threat that will strain their bond to the breaking point.

Ante up, because the Seven of Spades is all in. Are you?

 

About Cordelia Kingsbridge

Cordelia Kingsbridge has a master’s degree in social work from the University of Pittsburgh, but quickly discovered that direct practice in the field was not for her. Having written novels as a hobby throughout graduate school, she decided to turn her focus to writing as a full-time career. Now she explores her fascination with human behavior, motivation, and psychopathology through fiction. Her weaknesses include opposites-attract pairings and snarky banter.

Away from her desk, Cordelia is a fitness fanatic, and can be found strength training, cycling, and practicing Krav Maga. She lives in South Florida but spends most of her time indoors with the air conditioning on full blast!

Connect with Cordelia:

Giveaway

To celebrate the release of One-Eyed Royals, Cordelia is giving away a $10 Riptide gift card! Leave a comment with your contact info to enter the contest. Entries close at midnight, Eastern time, on September 15, 2018. Contest is NOT restricted to U.S. entries. Thanks for following along, and don’t forget to leave your contact info!

 

Read Scattered Thoughts and Rogue Words Review here.  We love the book and the series!

A VVivacious Review: Breaking the Bonds (Cascade City Pack #2) by Rebecca James

Rating: 4.5 Stars out of 5

A year has passed since the events of “A New Beginning” and Jax finds himself deep undercover trying to find the root of evil that had infiltrated the Human-Shifter Congress.

A year in he finds himself closer to his goal but having to try harder to keep appearances, when he finds out that things are worse than he could have imagined.

Jax finds himself in the middle of an omega sex-trafficking ring where omegas are kept constantly in heat by the use of a compound that is causing a whole lot of side effects in the shifters who have been targeted with it.

It is time for everybody to work together as they break this vicious cycle and overcome the elements who have worked so hard and for so long to destroy any attempts at a peaceful existence between humans and shifters.

I really don’t know what to rate this book, it was a compelling follow-up to this saga but while it lacked the intensity of the first in the Cascade City Pack series that could be because this one was very different to its predecessor. This one is all about the human-shifter dynamics and about breaking the cycle and putting both species on an equal till. Personally, I was very satisfied but the ending felt like coming full cycle it made me feel like this was it and that we were saying goodbye to this series and its characters who we have known for almost five books now and that gave my feelings a very melancholy edge. Most of the times I come out of reading a book pretty sure of what I will be rating it, sometimes as I write the review my rating changes to a little extent as I realise more things I liked or didn’t as I process my thoughts but this one was not one of them. Sometimes and this is really rare because you can most assuredly rate the ones you really like as 5 stars and the ones you didn’t a single and the ones which you liked but not too much three but what do you rate a book that feels unrateable it’s like I can’t quantify the quality that the book has. This is shaping up to one of those books, so I’m just winging it when it comes to the rating. But thankfully reviews aren’t all about ratings and I do actually get to share my thoughts and try to relay in words what I couldn’t in numbers, about this book’s unquantifiable quality.

Like most books in these series (River Wolf Pack, Angel Hills Pack & Cascade City Pack) this book is also told from multiple POVs (I almost wrote all but then I realized that the first two books in the River Wolf Pack series only had dual POVs if even that, I can’t be very sure but I think those two books are told from the POV of both main characters in those books). I personally have been loving this way of storytelling especially as it pertains to this story because there are already a ton of characters I’m invested it and this way I get to know how they all are in a more intimate way as I get to spend some time in their head and see their troubles because not everyone’s involved in human-shifter politics and they have other worries which is immediately brought to fore as we start this book with Sam’s POV and how he isn’t feeling well and how he is worried about his alpha. It was kind of nice in hindsight to have some characters be more grounded. This story ultimately reveals the bigger scandal that was hinted at, at the end of the first book and everyone is distressed by it but not everyone can be directly involved so it was nice to have Sam be worried for other reasons. It was nice for Sid to world towards a human-shifter alliance but in a different way. It added gravity to the sex-trafficking that was happening unbeknownst to many.

I had a moment of epiphany in this book when I was reading Josiah’s POV and it was just the thought that I have known River and Josiah for so long and I still wanted to know more about them. I loved their dynamic in this one, it was more settled and not as explosive as in the previous book but still such a comfortable relationship. I loved how much both Josiah and River have grown thanks to their relationship, how it has opened River’s eyes to being more open-minded and not as entrenched in the past and how Josiah has realized that a bit of caution would be the better part of valour when it comes to jumping into a situation head first. There is still much ahead for these two but it is amazing to see River as the Alpha he is hands down the best Pack Alpha around, he is amazing and David is right when he says that it says something about River that he has not one but two prolific packs to his credit.

David has to be my favourite character. I love him so much and every relationship he has is a treasure to witness. I loved that we could focus on River and David for a bit in this one and see how close these two are and how open with one another. I always love David and Briar because I honest to god forget they are brothers but we didn’t get much of them in this one.

Though we finally got to see David and Jax and considering everything that has happened, these two deserve their happy ending. That scene where David just happens to come across Jax is so surreal, God! These two have such an intense chemistry it is hard to breathe at times.

We also get to see Jax’s POV in this one and it was much needed and I know I really wanted it and I am really happy that I got it. Jax has been in a very tough situation the past year working as a sort of double agent and when he comes across the omega sex-trafficking ring, he is right in the middle of that depravity forced to keep his cover. I really understand all his feelings and for a moment I was scared he would run away but I guess David can work miracles, all in all, the situation kind of forces Jax’s hand but I was so glad in the end, because David, Jax and Brooks deserve a happy ending after all they have been through.

We do also get the conclusion of Jaime and Mark’s storyline and I am happy with how things ended there. I had forgotten a lot of characters because it has been quite a while since I have read “A New Beginning” but the moment I was reintroduced to the characters that I had known but had forgotten somehow I felt as invested in them as if I had remembered them the whole time. I am really happy for these two.

So yeah as the book ended I was really wondering if Rebecca James was ending the series here but then I thought about it and I was like no there is so much more that I need to know especially, about Sid and Grier. Sid is a character that has been very interesting to me and I really want his story to have a happy ending and this twist in the form of Grier seems like a pretty innovative one and I want to see where these two end up.

I am so happy with this one, I love these characters so much and their individual struggles just make them even more endearing but somehow if for some reason this is actually an end I feel like we are leaving these characters at a very optimistic note with a whole world of possibilities in front of them. Until next time!

Cover Art by Written Ink Designs. Loved the cover.

Sales Link:   JMS Book LLC  |  Amazon

Book Details:Kindle Edition
Published August 18th 2018 by JMS Books LLC
ASINB07FZG5H4F
Edition LanguageEnglish
SeriesCascade City Pack #2