Category: LGBTQ Book Reviews

Blog Tour for Death by Starlight by Alexis Duran (excerpt and giveaway)

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Title: Death By Starlight
Author: Alexis Duran
Series: Edge of Night #2
Release Date: July 19th 2017
Genre: Paranormal MM Romance/Fantasy

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In Betwixt and Between, Ian and Zeke fought a battle against the queen of the dark realm in order to be together. Now, just when they think they might settle into as normal a life as elves living among humans might be able to expect, a new enemy threatens to tear them apart. While Zeke helps the shaman Alistair in his hunt for an elusive mermaid, Ian is called to confront a wicked nymph preying on tourists along Seattle’s waterfront. Zeke and Ian soon discover that the defeated Queen Ysolde has spread her evil into the sea realms, and danger lurks beneath every wave. But it’s too late to stop an escalating series of confrontations that lead to disappearances, death and the possible end of light in this world.

As Ysolde plots revenge and a mysterious prince seeks to win Ian for himself, the ancient war between light and dark sweeps Ian and Zeke into its maelstrom of hate, testing their trust for each other to the utmost.

Purchase: Amazon US | Amazon UK | Loose ID

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EXCERPT

“Someone has to restore the balance between light and dark energy. I’m one of the last of my kind. I might be the only one who can do it.” Ian slid his hands off the table and rested them on his thighs. He expected derisive laughter from Zeke or a gentle clucking accompanied by a sad shake of the head. Sure, Ian Evers, nobody reporter for a gossip rag, half-breed elf, was going to save the world and fix what Ysolde spent centuries destroying.

Zeke’s face remained impassive, but a storm brewed in his eyes. “You’re not the last of the liosa. Others escaped.”

“I might as well be. They’re all gone, run off to hide out beyond…” Ian waved a hand in the air, signifying that remote world he sometimes glimpsed when they made love.

Glaring out the windows into their backyard, Zeke breathed deeply but said nothing. Ian continued.

“If I start with some miniscule adjustments, push back against the places the dark realm has encroached on this world, maybe some liosa will come out of hiding.”

“They won’t like you being with a svarta,” Zeke said.

“That’s their problem. I know I might never be buddies with other liosa, but we could use their help, right? If Ysolde is plotting to retake her throne like you say, and the svarta are behind her—”

“Only some of them. We don’t need anyone’s help.”

“Yes, we do. We never would’ve defeated Ysolde without Alistair’s and Cleona’s help.”

Zeke leaned forward, his gaze now focused intently on Ian. “We’re stronger now. We need to concentrate on solidifying our connection and making sure no one can break it.”

“You think someone could?” Ian asked. Surprised by the fear he saw lurking behind his lover’s composure, he instinctively put his hands on the table and reached for Zeke’s. Zeke allowed his hands to be held without reacting.

“You couldn’t track me in the dark realm,” Zeke said. “I’m afraid the same would be true if you ever go off into the realm of light. I’ll lose you.”

BOOK ONE

Title: Betwixt and Between
Release Date: June 29th 2015
Genre: Paranormal MM Romance, Fantasy

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Reporter Ian Evers, obsessed with magical creatures since childhood, never experiences satisfying proof that the magical realm actually exists until he falls into an entrapment spell set by a handsome but dangerous elf. Barely escaping with his soul intact, Ian is able to undo the hex, but he can’t escape the very real infatuation he’s developed for the fierce, alluring elf.

Ezekiel Stormshadow is a svarta, a dark elf who serves the queen of the dark realm. The realm of darkness needs the power of light to survive, and while hunting the last few magical beings on earth, Ezekiel discovers Ian, a light elf who’s unaware of his true nature and ripe for the plucking. Their brief encounter awakens a great hunger in Ezekiel, and he’s determined to feast on the light elf’s power and body before the queen intervenes and claims Ian for herself.

Ian knows only he can save Ezekiel from the grasp of the dark queen. Driven apart by the ancient imbalance between the dark and light realms, an evil queen starved for power, and their fear of each other, Ian and Ezekiel are relentlessly drawn together even though their union might destroy them both.

Find Betwixt and Between on Goodreads

Purchase: Amazon US | Amazon UK | Loose ID

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About the Author

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Alexis Duran was born and raised in the Pacific Northwest. At the University of Oregon, her fascination with people and relationships led her to major in Sociology, but her main love has always been creative writing. She has worked in museums, in fashion, in finance and film production. Her favorite job so far was Administrative Assistant in a haunted Victorian Mansion. She’s had several short stories published in the mystery, horror and literary genres, and one contemporary fantasy novel. Her fiction has won several awards including the Rupert Hughes Award from the Maui Writers Conference. She’s thrilled to enter the realm of erotic romance with the publication of her novels Touch of Salar, Blood of Salar and To Catch A Threeve. She’s is currently working on the next in the Masters and Mages series and several other m/m erotic novellas.

Links: Website | Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads | Amazon | Pinterest

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A MelanieM Review: Force of Nature (Coming About #4) by J.K. Hogan

Rating: 3 stars out of 5

2 stars for the characters and disaster in the middle
4 stars out of 5 for the survival and nature parts

(really I wavered here, at points it was 2 for inconsistencies, others 4 for accuracy=what a strange story)

 

Everyone knows that bonds formed under extreme circumstances never last.

Harbor Patrol officer Neal Hesse has had his life turned upside down by a sudden break-up with his partner of ten years. After sleeping his way through Seattle failed to take his mind off his broken heart, he decides to take a leave of absence from work to find himself again. He hires a professional wilderness guide to take him up into the mountains, so he can get away from everything and live off the grid for a few days.

Travis “Rock” McCreary, ex-Army Ranger turned survivalist, hates doing guided excursions, but it’s his primary source of income while he’s working towards getting his own survival show. Working in such a testosterone-fueled profession has forced him so deep into the closet, he feels like he might never see the light of day again, which makes it even harder to put on a friendly face for his happy, normal clients.

When Rock is hired by clumsy city-boy Neal to take him up into the North Cascades for a survival adventure, his patience and his resolve are tested at every turn. He has to teach Neal to survive in the wilderness while fighting an attraction he can’t allow himself to act on. When their trip doesn’t go as planned, Neal’s getaway turns into a true survival situation, and he and Rock are forced to rely on each other to stay alive. If they make it out of the wilderness, can their newfound connection survive in the real world?

*Possible trigger warning: situations where consent may appear dubious.

Force of Nature (Coming About #4) by J.K. Hogan was such a strange and potentially upsetting book to read.  On one side, the author did a tremendous job of portraying the wilderness survival trip and the beauty of the woods and mountains.  It conveyed with a realness and immediacy that this retired Park Ranger could see and believe in.  So too the drama with with a calm hike could turn with a shocking swiftness into a fight for your life.  Totally authentic.

Then I have to get into the characters.

There is a larger cast of characters here that apparently belongs to the series. That would be the group of close friends of Neal Hesse, one of the main characters. This is, however, the first book that I have read in the Coming About series and I didn’t feel that I was lacking in any real information here. This absolutely can be read as a standalone novel.

I was into both characters.  Neal Hesse, the Harbor Patrol officer that’s coming off several bad events in his life.  His long term relationship of 10 years has ended badly, showing him exactly how shallow and meaningless  it really was and he and his Harbor Patrol partner are coming off a hostage situation that was personal.  Neal is depressed, questioning himself, and looking to see how to go forward.  A hike with his group of friends and accidental meeting with Travis “Rock” McCreary, a survivalist, YouTube star and guide changes everything.  Especially when Neal decides that a survival expedition is just what he needs to evaluate himself and his current situation and his guide turns out to be McCreary.

Travis is an ex-Army Ranger with an rigid conservative church background and family who would never accept a gay son.  Into the closet he went while in the Army and there he has stayed until meeting Neal makes him want more than he think he can ever have. I got Travis, this is a fearless man in the wild but in his personal life?  He’s bound by fear, beaten into him by his past and outside expectations as well as his own.  Their dynamics on the trail, and both men’s inner discourse on their attractions to each other, the wariness etc. delivers, again a nice dose of realism.  Then the author completely derails her story.

That’s where the “possible trigger warning” note comes in.  I was truly into these characters right up until the author took an unimaginable left turn into “what the hell did the author just do” land.   What the author does to her own characters is so completely bonkers in my opinion because it’s completely out of the character’s  personalities she’s laid down for them that not only is it shocking but deplorable.  In order to get back to the point that I liked and was able to enjoy this story again, I almost had to believe that those scenes didn’t take place. Because pages later, they all return to normal.

What was the author thinking?

Another iffy aspect here?  One that’s sort of folded into that mess above?  It’s where Neal decides to pull Travis out of his closet because, hey, it, totally shouldn’t be his decision. Shakes head.  Then there is a switch back to where Neal decides it is Travis’ decision to where he wants to stay in the closet or not.  I mean…this author had two great characters and one job to do….

Yes, I liked the ending.  I thought that was lovely.  And without that deplorable mess in the middle which granted wasn’t long, this rating would have been very different.  But it’s there and I keep feeling the rating should have been lower.  I just don’t know.  So much of the book is well done but I just can’t recommend it.

Cover art is lovely.  That part I recommend.

Sales Links:  Amazon  

Book Details:

Kindle Edition, 1, 276 pages
Published July 4th 2017 by Euphoria Press
ASINB073FKY2QB
Edition LanguageEnglish
SeriesComing About #4

 

A VVivacious Review: High and Dry (Mate of the Tyger Prince #5) by Shannon West

Rating: 4 Stars out of 5

Renard and Tallon are still at odds following the “incident” but when Tallon suggests a way for Renard to make it up to him, Renard is nervous but eager to regain their former camaraderie. But when all goes horribly wrong, will Renard and Tallon make it?

For the first time in a very long time, Davos isn’t speaking to Blake because that is exactly how pissed Davos is this time around. In all their time together Blake has never backed down and been the one to apologise. It has always been Davos. So it stands to be seen if Blake will salvage their relationship or stand by his pride?

Mikos is set on getting Ryan settled down with another baby, but he has no idea of what is cooking up in Ryan’s head…

This is the fifth book in the series and it is most definitely not a standalone. I don’t think any of the books in this series could be considered standalones but in most of the books prior to this one, the story wasn’t so reliant on already established characters and storylines. This book follows six characters – Mikos and Ryan (who were the couple featured in books 1 and 2), Renard (introduced in book 3 and featured again in book 4), Tallon (introduced in book 4), Blake (who has been a very important character in all the books of this series) and Davos. The only character who I felt I wasn’t intimately familiar with was Davos. Up until now, Davos has been the comic relief the guy who gets the brunt of Blake’s anger, so it was amazing to finally get to know him.

Mikos and Ryan are the much needed comic relief in this book though they are not written as such, they have a sweet short quickly resolved story line that helps put into perspective Blake’s rebelliousness. So even though they are not the main characters of this book their input and their storyline was greatly appreciated by me. I also loved how Ryan handled the issue of pregnancy in this book, with such humour and humility.

Tallon and Renard are one of the main couples in this story. Personally, I felt that their relationship had already developed a lot when the incident happened in which Renard left Tallon high and dry and accused him of rape, to create a diversion, to help Vannos escape and this book didn’t have much content to explore as far as their relationship was concerned. In fact, the conflict that arises in this book between thesetwo had me very annoyed at Tallon, but I was pleased with where these two ended up.

Blake and Davis stole the show. There is so much we still don’t know about Blake and Davos’ relationship, this fact is compounded by the fact that we don’t know much about Davos as a character. Thankfully this book goes a long way in filling up that hole.

I have talked in previous reviews of this series about how much I love Blake’s interactions with his children and while this book offered more of those fantastic gleams into Blake, the kick-ass omak what I loved the most was the insights we got into Davos the father. Davos is such an amazing father. His children’s reaction to seeing him went such a long way in cementing his character. I loved how for him his entire family was so important and how much he was willing to sacrifice for their happiness.

Davos and Blake are at odds but even though Blake doubts Davos’ love for him, even Blake realises that Davos still loves him. However, his uncertainty has him reminiscing about their past. One thing I especially loved was the fact that Blake willingly altered the story of how they met to protect Mikos which was just something so inherently Blake that it had a feeling of warmth rushing through me. The second one was the change in Davos during his initial days with Blake and how he goes from wanting to subdue him to just loving him unabashedly. I also loved Davos’ observation about how each of their kids was Blake’s idea no matter how convinced he was of the contrary. This was another statement that just established all that vague ideas I had of Blake and Davos’ together. I really loved Davos and Blake and getting to know these two characters as they were with each other was an unexpected delight.

Okay, so this is paragraph is going to be about me speculating about the future of this series because I have some mad theories. So this series is mostly following Davos and Blake’s children more or less in chronological order. I say more or less because Anarr and Vannos are twins and I have no idea who is the older one. So next up should be Derrick’s (whose name is spelt as Darrek in the first book and Derrick in the third one) story. Now you are probably wondering who Derrick is, Derrick is Blake and Davos’ fourth child who has been missing from most of the series because he is undergoing military training. Now knowing Blake and since this issue was addressed in Book 3, we know that Blake isn’t happy about being away from Derrick for so long. But still, the fact remains that he has been mentioned in two books out of five and all this mystery around his character has my mind going into overload because I feel that the reason we haven’t come to know Derrick is that there is a huge secret surrounding him. The wildest theory I have is the possibility that Derrick might be a girl considering Blake’s opinion on gender segregation in Tygeria this theory of mine has me going crazy because just the possibility of Blake giving birth to a girl and then having to give her up seems nigh impossible which begs the question about what would happen if Blake was indeed in such a dilemma. Yeah,crazy ass storyline but I definitely want more on Derrick, this mystery fourth son of his. Also, I feel like we will be getting to know more about Marcus Sept which I am not enthusiastic about because I want the focus of this series to remain on the Tygerian royal family and not shift to follow Marcus’ adventures in space especially if it means time off from Blake and his brood.

This book resolves the security threat that the royal family has been facing in the previous books while stilling leaving the issue of ARes open, to offer more storylines. So in a way, the next book will have lots of new things coming up in it and I can’t wait. As you can see I haven’t taken into account the fact there might not be a sixth book but I am extremely, extremely hopeful.

A shout out to Nicarr who is like the cutest six-foot nine-year-old ever especially when he is jumping on his omak and is supremely confident that his omak will wake up for him, no matter what other people say. Blake with Nicarr and Larz is like cotton candy. I especially love the imagery of Nicarr on Blake’s lap I mean I knew Nicarr was tall but the fact that he was 6 feet to Blake’s 5 feet 9 inches puts a whole new spin on Blake’s baby. Also, this series better not end without Nicarr getting his happily ever after though the series will have to flash forward a few years for that and that particular prospect has me even more excited about Nicarr’s eventual story.

I can’t wait for the next one.

Cover Art by E Connors. I am just going to come out and say it the cover is weird. But keeping in mind the fact that Tygerians and Moravians look so different from humans must make it hard to figure out the covers for this series.

Sales Links:  Amazon

Book Details:

Kindle Edition, 248 pages
Published July 4th 2017 by Painted Hearts Publishing
ASINB073QWC7PX
SeriesMate of the Tyger Prince #5

 

Annabelle Jay on Writing, YA Fiction, and her latest release ‘Caden’s Comet’, Book Four in The Sun Dragon Series (Harmony Ink Press guest post)

Caden’s Comet (The Sun Dragon #4) by Annabelle Jay
Harmony Ink Press
Cover artist Stef Masciandaro

Available at Harmony Ink Press

Amazon

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Scattered Thoughts and Rogue Words is happy to have author Annabelle Jay here today talking about writing, YA fiction and her latest in the Sun Dragon series, Caden’s Comet. Welcome, Annabelle!

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Scattered Thoughts and Rogue Words Interview

with Annabelle Jay

How much of yourself goes into a character?

I always find this to be a really interesting question, though I’m not very good at answering it. The truth is, I often don’t know how much of myself goes into every character—I think that in some ways my characters all share something with me, and yet at the same time, they’re all very much their own people. Either way, I don’t do it intentionally. Using Caden’s Comet: Book Four in The Sun Dragon Series as an example, I’ve never thought of the main character, Grian, as similar to myself, but when I think about it, I used to have a very defined view of what “true love” meant—that it had to be like the movies—and Grian has to grapple with a prophesy for his own true love that doesn’t work out as he planned. And many of the other characters have shared traits with me—Allanah in Book One, for example, is obsessed with fantasy novels, as am I, and Princess Nimue in Book Three has my love of feminine material objects. So I guess at our emotional cores we’re similar in at least one way, though I’m never consciously writing myself or my own experience. As a side note, I almost never write nonfiction because I prefer to stay away from portraying actual events from my own life. 

Does research play a role into choosing which genre you write?  Do you enjoy research or prefer making up your worlds and cultures?

My style of research is typically “as you go.” I write until I come across something, some fact or detail, that I don’t know—then I research it. For example, I knew almost nothing about Merlin’s backstory and the other characters in his life beyond what I’d seen in movies and shows until I retold Merlin in Merlin’s Moon: Book Two in the Sun Dragon Series. By the end of the book, I’d learned a lot! Even in that situation, though, I used the research as a jumping off point to completely change Merlin’s story to fit my own.

Has your choice of childhood or teenage reading genres carried into your own choices for writing? Who do you think is your major influence as a writer?  Now and growing up?

Absolutely. I still love young adult fantasy the most, and it’s almost all of what I write. I especially love Patricia Wrede’s novels, and I see a lot of her inspiration in my dragon books.

How do you feel about the ebook format and where do you see it going?

One thing that I never thought about until I started writing YA books with LGBTQIA+ characters was how teens were actually going to get my books. Then I quickly came to realize that most of them prefer hiding their reading choices from their parents—especially when the teen themselves is LGBTQIA and hasn’t come out yet—which is a decision that ebooks allow for. It’s hard for teens to hide a print book from judgmental parents, but it’s much easier to hide an ebook. It makes me really sad that anyone would need to do that, but it makes me very grateful for the ebook platform. 

How do you choose your covers?  

I am so lucky to have an amazing cover artist, Stef Masciandaro, who does all of my Sun Dragon covers. She is a designer Harmony Ink assigned to me when I first started publishing the series, and I’ve requested her every time since! She somehow takes my ideas for covers and makes them into exactly what I had in mind—only ten times more amazing. I also love that all of the books have the same color scheme for the spine and back, but each front cover dragon is completely unique.

What’s next for you as an author?

Just in the last few weeks I signed contracts for two new books with Harmony Ink—one science fiction novel about cloning and one ebook that’s a dystopia. Of course, like all my books, they have LGBTQIA protagonists. I’m thrilled to have future projects with Harmony Ink once the fifth Sun Dragon book, Luminosity, comes out this January. 

 

Back Cover Blurb

Long ago, in the days before King Roland, the four dragon kingdoms—Ice, Sun, Earth, and Bone—battled for dominion over the bountiful planet Earth. Prince Grian, a young dragon, hid aboard a Sun Dragon ship, traveled to Earth, and met Caden, an Earth Dragon who’d run away from his village. Despite falling in love, destiny’s plans for them turned cruel, and both perished in the war.

The Artists who created the universe could not let this tragic loss of true love go unpunished. They wiped out the race of Sun Dragons, exiled the Bone Dragons to Draman, and banished the Ice Dragons to the North Pole, safely away from the Earth Dragons. Only the rebirth of Grian and Caden could break the curse. One day, the return of their love would usher in an age of peace and prosperity for all dragons.

But when Prince Grian is reborn, he finds reuniting with his soulmate on Earth will be no easy feat. As he searches for his lost love, the Earth Dragon Protection Society, or EDPS, searches for him, ready to kill him when they find him. If Grian can elude the EDPS, he might find that the true love he once had isn’t guaranteed to bloom a second time.

Cover Artist: Stef Masciandaro

 

About the Author

If there’s one thing author Annabelle Jay believes with all her heart, it’s that there is no such thing as too many dragons in a book. As fantasy writer with few other hobbies—does being bribed to run with her partner or dancing awkwardly in the kitchen count?—she spends every day following her imagination wherever it leads her.

A hippie born in the wrong decade, Annabelle has a peace sign tattoo and a penchant for hugging trees. Occasionally she takes breaks from her novels to play with her pets: Jon Snow, the albino rabbit who is constantly trying to escape; Stevie, the crested gecko that climbs glass with the hairs on its toes; and Luigi, the green tree python that lives at the foot of her bed despite her best efforts to talk her partner out of the idea.

During her day job as a professor of English, Annabelle is often assumed to be a fellow student playing a prank on the class—that is, until she hands out the syllabus. When people stop mistaking her for a recent high school graduate, she will probably be very sad.

 

Links:

Author’s Website: www.annabellejay.com

Twitter: @AnnabelleAuthor

Instagram: @AnnabelleAuthor

Publisher’s book page: https://www.harmonyinkpress.com/books/cadens-comet-by-annabelle-jay-483-b

Goodreads author page: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/14191901.Annabelle_Jay

Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/Annabelle-Jay-376249719245415

Release Blitz for Stormy Nights by Jules Jones & Storm Duffy (giveaway)

Title:  Stormy Nights

Author: Jules Jones, Storm Duffy

Publisher:  NineStar Press

Release Date: 7/24/17

Heat Level: 5 – Erotica

Pairing: Male/Male

Length: 45000

Genre: Contemporary, Paranormal, contemporary, paranormal, fantasy, mermen, fae, D/s, leather underwear fetish, older men, public sex, cottaging, menage

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Synopsis

Sex and love, lies and truth, shades in between. Happy endings and might-have-beens. Nine tales of these things between men.

Blurbs

Gone Fishing

Mike’s doctor prescribed a few weeks on a lonely beach as a rest cure for a weary mind. But even if the beach is empty, the sea holds more than fish.

Naked

Just how far will a man go to understand his partner’s desires? Will he bare all – including all of his skin to the razor blade?

One Size Fits All

Hugh’s everything that Gavin could ask for in a lover. Everything, apart from his taste in underwear. It’s boring. So Gavin decides to rummage through Hugh’s underwear drawer—and what he finds is so interesting that he tries it out for size.

The Fraudster

A forensic accountant’s job offer to a computer fraudster fresh from prison is a second chance for both.

A Sparrow Flies Through

High tech cottaging provides a few moments of light and warmth on a dark cold night.

If I Offered Thee a Bargain

Just one night of your life in exchange for seven years of love. Would you pay the price?
Jack never dreamed that a reluctant trip back to his home town would thrust him into the world of the sidhe. He finds that the legends are true, but the sidhe have changed.

Any Port in a Storm

A spilt coffee at the tram station on a snowy night leads to a table set for three.

Car Wash

Colin had always loved washing the neighbour’s car for pocket money. Rod’s classic car collection was a boy’s dream. And so is Rod, now Colin’s home from university and not a boy any more. Colin’s had a little fantasy about Rod’s vintage Jaguar and her gleaming curves for a while now…

Purchase

NineStar Press | Amazon | Smashwords | Barnes & Noble | Kobo

Meet the Author

Storm Duffy has a number of erotica shorts published under that and other names in a variety of venues, including “The Mammoth Book of Quick and Dirty Erotica”. As Jules Jones, she has written several erotic romance novellas and novels, including the first M/M romance published by Loose Id.

Amongst the 2500 or so books on shelves in her house, there is room for rather a lot of cross-stitch thread and entirely too many balls of wool. There are also more bits of computer kit than is quite reasonable for someone who doesn’t do that for a living. The two microscopes, on the other hand, are entirely in keeping with a career in science.

Website | Twitter | Authorgraph

 

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Release Blitz for Barging In by Josephine Myles (giveaway)

 

Buy Links: Amazon US | Amazon UK
 
Length: 93,000 words
 
Cover: Harper By Design
 
Blurb
 

When the boat’s a rockin’, don’t come knockin’!

Out-and-proud travel writer Dan Taylor is a city boy who can’t steer a boat to save his life, but that doesn’t stop him from heading into the English countryside to write up a narrowboat holiday. Compared to London, the canal seems dull as ditchwater. Until he crashes into the boat of a half-naked, tattooed man whose bad-boy, penniless appearance doesn’t fit with his posh accent. Dan is intrigued, and he always gets his man.

Still smarting from a past betrayal, Robin Hamilton is firmly closeted in his narrowboat—his refuge from outrageous, provocative men like Dan. But as circumstances keep throwing them together, he can’t help himself from coming to the hopelessly out-of-place city boy’s rescue. Exposure to Dan’s sunny charm starts to melt Robin’s resolve and he’s tempted by the idea of a brief, harmless fling.

After all, in less than a week, Dan will have left the canal and be back to his diet of casual hook-ups and friends with benefits.

Determined not to fall in love, both men dive into one week of indulgence…only to find themselves swept away by a current of escalating intimacy and emotional intensity. Troubled waters they didn’t anticipate… and haven’t a clue how to navigate.

Warning: Contains one lovable tart, one posh boy gone feral, rough sex, alfresco sex, vile strawberry flavoured condoms, intimate body piercings, red thermal long-johns, erotic woodchopping, an errant cat, a few colourful characters you wouldn’t touch with a bargepole, and plenty of messing about on the river.

Author Bio

English through and through, Josephine Myles is addicted to tea and busy cultivating a reputation for eccentricity. She writes gay erotica and romance, but finds the erotica keeps cuddling up to the romance, and the romance keeps corrupting the erotica. Jo blames her rebellious muse but he never listens to her anyway, no matter how much she threatens him with a big stick. She’s beginning to suspect he enjoys it.

Jo’s novel Stuff won the 2014 Rainbow Award for Best Bisexual Romance, and her novella Merry Gentlemen won the 2014 Rainbow Award for Best Gay Romantic Comedy. She loves to be busy, and is currently having fun trying to work out how she is going to fit in her love of writing, dressmaking and attending cabaret shows in fabulous clothing around the demands of a preteen with special needs and an incessantly curious toddler.



Website and blog: josephinemyles.com/
Facebook: facebook.com/josephine.myles.author
Twitter: @JosephineMyles
Newsletter: eepurl.com/hrQ4s

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A Jeri Review: Saving Sebastian (Custos Securities, #3) by Luna David

Rating: 3.5 stars out of 5

This is book three in the series but can be read as a stand alone. Tons of character cross over, but really the story lines are completely separate.

While I did enjoy this book more than the first two, it is plagued with many of the same issues. Way, WAY too wordy- too much irrelevant information and too much repetition. So once again there was quite a bit of skimming. We are also led to believe that Sebastian’s health problems are a port wine stain on his face and neck and although we find out it is much more than that, it wasn’t like a big aha moment at all.

That being said, I really did like the story.  This book really deals with BDSM in a way the first two didn’t. Again though, the contract between them and how often they saw each other for scenes was a bit similar to a well know mainstream BDSM novel. At least in this one they both really stuck to the contract to keep it impersonal.

I did love watching Sebastian’s growth from complete loner to accepting that he does have friends and people who genuinely cared for him. It was really sweet when he allowed himself to be loved, helped and cared for by other people.

Gideon’s switch flipped too quickly for me. From “omg I am a horrible person who did horrible things and don’t deserve love” to “omg I love him so much” really fast. A bit too fast.

Overall it is a good story. I think you will enjoy it if you enjoy BDSM stories. What they ultimately give each other as far as love and confidence was beautiful.

Cover art works great for the storyline and characters.

Sales Links:  Amazon

Book Details:

Kindle Edition, 525 pages
Published July 6th 2017
ASINB073S99K3H
SeriesCustos Securities #3

A Jeri Review: Protecting Braden (Custos Securities #2) by Luna David

Rating: 3 Stars out of 5

This next book picks up right where the first left off. The cliffhanger is tied up fairly quickly and then the story continues as Cade and Braden continue their smooshy love fest while he has a stalker on the loose.

Honestly, this book didn’t offer much more than the first did. More of the same but different circumstances really. We get more of Cade’s family- I really liked all of them.

In the first book there is the small issue of Cade living in and owning a business in Denver and Braden living and owning a business in San Francisco. Well that is fixed quite tidily by just moving Cade’s business to SF. Uhm, ok. What about ALL the other employees? Details like this make me crazy.

And as Cade is renovating a huge warehouse to use as his businesses new headquarters, Braden is tasked with designing the top floor for them to live in together. On Cade’s dime. No expense spared. Again, this just harkens back to bodice ripping romance novels to me.

As with the first, there is SO MUCH DETAIL. Way, way too much. I was skimming pages and pages after a while. And it wasn’t just the detail, but the stories that didn’t add anything to the main story. While I appreciate that Cade was finally opening up to Braden about some of his time in the military, we didn’t need to hear all of the stories he was telling Braden.

The epilogue was nice, but a bit tidy. That isn’t going to happen in real life. But that is why we read books, right? To escape real life.

Nice cover with tie in to the characters.

Sales Link:  Amazon

Book Details:

328 pages
Published July 6th 2016
Edition LanguageEnglish
SeriesCustos Securities #2