Category: LGBTQ Book Reviews

A MelanieM Review: Death Mask (Black Harbinger MC #1) by Lexi Ander

Rating: 4 stars out of 5

death-mask-by-lexi-anderGrim Misery, the President of the Black Harbinger Motorcycle Club, discovers a wounded warlock and four werepups aboard the club’s LSD shipment. And the news kept getting better and better. Not only is the warlock sitting on the edge of death, he’s illegally bonded to the werepups, which could trigger a war with the werewolves—and he turns out to be Misery’s estranged husband.

Years ago, Griffin turned Misery away to be with another warlock by the name of Marcheso Aldo. Misery left everything behind, even his family, but couldn’t shake the heartbreak Griffin caused. With Griffin thrust back into Misery’s life, he discovers things aren’t as they seem… and everything is about to get much, much worse.

Hard to write a review when so much about the story has twists and turns that contain spoilers for most of the story.  Can’t really talk about much of the plot or even the characters. So lets see what it does leave me with.

Lexi Ander hooked me on both.

Yes, there is so much going on here, enough clearly for two or more stories because of past histories and layers to all the characters you will meet, not just the MCs.  Its the secondary characters and even the levels surrounding those.  Its the world building, that will still leave you asking questions and wanting to know more.  Its those pups that I fell in love with with a heartbreaking  history.  But most of all  its Misery and his husband, Griffin, whose story this is.  Theirs and the evil that’s coming for them.

Ander did a wonderful job filling out both Grim and Griffin while still letting us be surprised when the twists and turns came into play.   The author managed to show us all  sides of their relationship.  Not just the angst, but the anger, the growth each has gone through and the adjustments each realize they need to make in order for any future relationship to work between them.  All while dealing with the pups and unimaginable horrors on the horizon.

This was a very quick read.  I gobbled it up in one sitting and was left wishing for more.  As its the first book in the series, I know I will get my wish.  It includes so many incredible characters that I foresee a long enjoyable run if they are all as good as this one.  Love tales of the supernatural as well as a romance?  Pick up Death Mask and get started.  I absolutely recommend it.

Cover art by Kirby Crow is absolutely perfect.  Love it.

Sales Links

Less Than Three

Book Details:

ebook
Expected publication: November 9th 2016 by Less Than Three Press
ISBN139781620048849
Edition LanguageEnglish
SeriesBlack Harbinger MC #1

A Stella Review: Stroke of Luck by Posy Roberts

RATING 3,5 out of 5 stars

stroke-of-luckAfter everything Marc owned burned to a crisp, he’s living off the kindness of others. A model condo is his temporary home, and his last dime went to essentials. He doesn’t need another distraction, but the fates conspire against him, setting up a chain of encounters that bring him face to face with Cas.

Cas’s love life has been in limbo for years, lovers moving on as soon as they discover how close he is to his best friend, Maisie. Then he meets Marc. The attraction between the two men can’t be denied, but Cas isn’t sure he can risk his friendship for a guy who will only end up leaving when he sees how close he and Maisie are.

When Marc and Cas discover they live in the same building, it’s kismet. But Marc has to invite chaos into his life if he and Cas stand a chance, and Cas faces a choice between friendship and love. Luck may be on their side… if they’re willing to risk it all.

Stroke of Luck is the latest story by one of my favorite authors, Posy Roberts. The story is quick and sweet, just what I needed when I read it. Nothing in common with the angst I got from books like Silver Scars.

Marc has lost everything he owned in the fire that burnt his apartment, he is now living in a condo offered by his friend Sylvia and shopping at Goodwill for his basic necessity. And just at the Goodwill he meets Cas, who is looking for Halloween costumes. Cas, who can’t keep none of his boyfriends cause they are all too scared and  not trusting of his friendship with his bestie Maisie. The chemistry between Cas and Mark is so strong, they fall for each other pretty soon.

I think the author did great, the story is funny and very light and the writing is good as always with Posy style. I loved Marc, he is definitely my favorite, while I couldn’t connect with Cas, probably his attachment with Maisie left me a little dubious. The relationship between Cas and Maisie is not the typical friendship, she is still in the closet and afraid to come out to her parents. She is basically using Cas in my opinion, so I couldn’t fully enjoy Cas until almost the end of the book when things finally started to change. By then it was too late to have more space for the MCs and I wanted more of Marc and Cas together. That’s why, althought I really liked the story, Stroke of Luck didn’t fully satisfy me and I’m still craving for more.

I like the cover art, especially in the use of the colors and well, the model smile is pretty good too.

Sale Link

7104e-waxcreative-amazon-kindle

Book Details

Kindle Edition, 86 pages
Published October 26th 2016 by Labyrinth Bound Press
ASIN B01M29RHHU
Edition Language English

Its Release Week for Falling Down by Eli Easton

Falling Down – Eli Easton

Author: Eli Easton
 
Release: November 9 2016
 

Buy Links:

Amazon US: http://amzn.to/2eBueEO

Amazon UK: http://amzn.to/2fdTqVY

 
Blurb

Josh finds himself homeless at eighteen, but he has a plan. He’ll head north on the bus to New England and spend October there for his mother’s sake. She always talked about going to see the fall leaves someday. And when the leaves were done and the harsh winter came, Josh would find a place to curl up and let go. It would be a relief to finally stop fighting.

Mark spent his life trying to live up to the tough swagger of his older brothers until he pushed himself so far against his nature that he cracked. Now an ex-Marine, he rents a little cabin in the White Mountains of New Hampshire where he can lick his wounds and figure out what to do with the rest of his life. One thing was clear: Mark was nobody’s hero.

Fate intervenes when Josh sets up camp under a covered bridge near Mark’s cabin. Mark recognizes the dead look in the young stranger’s eyes, and he feels compelled to do something about it. When Mark offers Josh a job, he never expected that he’d be the one to fall.

The snow is coming soon. Can Mark convince Josh that the two of them can build a life together before the flurries fall?

Author Bio

Having been, at various times, and under different names, a minister’s daughter, a computer programmer, the author of metaphysical thrillers, an organic farmer and a profound sleeper, Eli is happily embarking on yet another incarnation as a m/m romance author.

As an avid reader of such, she is tinkled pink when an author manages to combine literary merit, vast stores of humor, melting hotness and eye-dabbing sweetness into one story. She promises to strive to achieve most of that most of the time. She currently lives on a farm in Pennsylvania with her husband, three bulldogs, three cows and six chickens. All of them (except for the husband) are female, hence explaining the naked men that have taken up residence in her latest writing.

Eli currently publishes with Dreamspinner Press and has a few self-pubbed titles as well.

She also publishes thrillers under Jane Jensen.

 
Email: eli@elieaston.com

A VVivacious Review: Ownage by Dale Chase

Rating: 5 Stars out of 5
 
ownage-by-dale-chaseWayne Kerley and Tommy Knox have been together for twelve years but nobody knows it. As players on opposite baseball teams not only do they have to keep their relationship on the down low but they also stay apart for much of the season.
 
As Wayne faces the end of his contract and starts thinking of retiring, things start to slump for Tommy out on the field forcing them to talk about the one thing they have avoided talking about for most of their relationship –the future.
 
I loved this story, it is more novella than novel but as they say good things come in small packages.
 
I love established couple romances and this book epitomizes everything I love about that particular trope that is about seeing couples face their life together with their love a quiet awareness that smolders all around.
 
Wayne is a pitcher nearing the end of his contract and we see him trying to ignore the elephant in the room while still powering-through on the field. This story is told from Wayne’s perspective and I will agree that the fact that we spend so much time with Wayne means that I can’t describe Tommy as well, but it didn’t matter because Wayne and Tommy were an amazing couple.
 
When I first came across this book I was skeptical about their relationship seeing as their relationship is something that can be classified as a long distance relationship and romance (at least romantic books) generally don’t look kindly on long distance relationships, they are always the ones fraught with problems. But what made this book so splendid was the fact that while reading this book that skepticism didn’t enter my mind. Much of this book speaks about Tommy and Wayne and how they keep in touch without it ever feeling like that is what they are doing. They communicate on the same level as people who have been together for years (as they have) do, they have their own routines and couple-y things that make them comfortable and so in-sync with each other.
 
Also what I liked was that Wayne acknowledges all the aspect of their relationships good or bad. The fact that they stay apart much of the time and it is very easy to be shut out of the other person’s life, the lack of mutual friends and how time together is always bittersweet with the tinge of the looming parting and also the fact that coming back to each other is the best feeling ever, like coming home after a long day.
 
The ending of this story is something that can come as a bit of a surprise, like a ‘that’s it!’ when you come across the “THE END” but somehow for me I liked even that and I am a big one for endings. I loathe bad endings, like the good ones and I love the bittersweet ones and somehow I felt that this ending was perfect for this book. In a way I felt that the book ended at the right time because it was going to be like an end of an era for Tommy and Wayne, something new was headed their way, new challenges and maybe even unexplored territory as they live together, and this story contained as it was in a different part of their lives couldn’t possibly have done justice to this new period in their life, having said that I would definitely welcome more on these two.
 
For as short as this book was it really captured by imagination as even though I have talked so much about the story, I have somehow managed to avoid talking about the baseball in this book. I have a rudimentary knowledge of baseball like just the basics and I may be missing a few of those too. So I can say confidently that not knowing baseball that well didn’t affect my enjoyment of this book but I can equally not say if as a baseball fan I might have liked this more (because I would have probably understood more of the nuances of this book) or less (because I would have been more critical of said nuances).
 
Having said it all, I would like to say for me this book kind of added up, with all the nooks and crannies I didn’t understand to the love story I did, to be an amazing read.
 
Cover Art by Written Ink Designs. I liked the cover what with the packed stadium and the bright sun and the pitcher getting ready to pitch the ball.
Sales Links
9e7ee-all2bromance2bbutton
7104e-waxcreative-amazon-kindle
Book Details:
Kindle Edition, 68 pages
Published October 15th 2016 by JMS Books LLC
ASINB01LZOFK6X
Edition LanguageEnglish

An Alisa Review: Tricks and Bids (Suit of Harte’s #1) by Jacqueline Grey

Rating:  3 stars out of 5

 

tricks-and-bidsWhen Michael Nole propositions Dillon Spade outside of a BDSM club one evening, all he is looking for is a potential client and a little kink, but he gets much more than he bargained for.  As a prostitute, Michael enjoys sex but keeps an emotional distance between himself and the men he sleeps with.  His priority is to keep himself safe, but after a night in Dillon’s bed, he finds the line between enjoyment and occupation becoming blurrier than usual.

 

Dillon Spade hasn’t taken another man home in six years since his previous lover passed away, but there is something about Michael that calls to his inner Dominant in a way he cannot resist.  His instincts want to claim the boy even as he reminds himself that he is only paying Michael for temporary company.

 

Their relationship may have started as a business transaction, but these two are finding it difficult to remain professional when the man beside them is proving to be an exception to all the rules.

 

Michael is a young man who accidentally fell into prostitution and doesn’t really see anything else he can do.  When he decides to look for a little kink for the night he approaches Dillon and gets more than he bargained for.  Dillon controls Michael so well; he has trouble remembering what their relationship really is.

 

Michael and Dillon both know that they have a bigger connection than client and prostitute, but one of them has to break first.  Dillon begins to think of Michael as his and has more and more trouble saying goodbye.  Michael runs at the thought of something serious, but it’s more that he’s scared he wants it than that he doesn’t and what that might mean.  Michael and Dillon are both pretty innocent when it comes to relationships as Dillon has only had one and Michael never has.  We see both of them open themselves up to the idea of having someone permanent in their lives.

 

The cover art is very nice and gives a good visual for the characters.

 

Sales Link: Resplendence Publishing | Amazon | ARe

 

Book Details:

ebook, 66 pages

Published: September 24, 2014 by Resplendence Publishing

ISBN: 9781607358121

Edition Language: English

Series: Suit of Harte’s #1