Category: LGBTQ Book Reviews

A Paul B Review: Flight Anthology by Queer Sci Fi

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

flight-anthologyCan you write a complete story in 300 words?  That was the challenge set forth by the Queer Science Fiction group to over 100 authors.  The topic chosen for the authors was flight.  The subjects were as varied as the authors.  Most of the stories I found entertaining while a couple left me flat. 

The stories themselves are divided into different genres within the field of science fiction.  General science fiction and fantasy dominate the anthology but there are also sections for those interested in horror and the paranormal. 

In this anthology, you will also find a full range of emotions.  While many of the stories feature some type of happy ending (whether for the moment or what appears to be ever after), there are those stories that are tragic or bittersweet.  Probably what one would expect in such a tome.

Besides the award winning stories selected by the editors (as I think they should be), my personal favorites include some favorite authors and some new ones to me.  I thought Alexis Woods’ Zero-G was especially unique in adapting current sports to futuristic technology.  Andrea Speed has a unique take on the rapture in Flight of the Buttheads.  Tam Ames has a warm family story in When the Fur Flies.  Kirby Quinlan has a unique take on superheroes in Wings.  Paul Stevens has a friends-to-lovers story on a space ship in Resupply.  Other stories I particularly loved were by Jo Tannah, Jennifer Lavoie, Christina Mary Franics, Ginger Struesel, M.D. Grimm, Nicole Dennis, and Alicia Nordwell.  Overall, if you would like some quick reads with a nice variety in the stories, I would highly recommend picking up this anthology.

The cover art and illustrations throughout the book by Mila May are simply breathtaking.  The illustrations depicting the winning stories are perfect.

Sales Links

Mischief Corner Books

7104e-waxcreative-amazon-kindle

Book Details

ebook, First, 262 pages
Published September 21st 2016 by Mischief Corner Books, LLC
Original TitleFlight: Queer Sci Fi’s Third Annual Flash Fiction Contest (QSF Flash Fiction, #2)
Edition LanguageEnglish

SeriesQSF Flash Fiction #2

A Free Dreamer Review: Faire Secrets (The Faire Folk #4) by Madeleine Ribbon

Rating: 4 stars out of 5

faire-secrets-by-madeleine-ribbonZion’s life is falling apart. His home burned down, his obnoxious ex-boyfriend is scheduled to get out of jail, the managers of the magical Renaissance Faire expect him to do a month’s worth of work in days, he hasn’t seen his sick sister in nine months, and he’s discovered a hidden room filled with secrets in the rubble of his library.

Usually, spending a few hours practicing rope bondage would be enough to clear Zion’s head, but not this time. This time there’s too much going wrong, and none of his problems are going away. In fact, life is throwing him yet another curve ball in the form of a handsome architect named Vin—the same Vin who spent all of last year trying to climb into Zion’s pants. Zion resisted then, but he’s not so sure he can do it again. He’s not so sure he even wants to.

Zion’s mountain of problems just keeps growing, and it’s only a matter of time until he gets buried beneath them.

First of all, I haven’t read the previous books in this series. I read the blurb for “Faire Secrets”, which is book four, and thought it sounded interesting. I went back and glanced over the blurbs of the previous books. Since this couple didn’t show up in any of them, I figured it should work as a standalone. Unfortunately it doesn’t. That’s totally my own fault and has nothing to do with the quality of the book/series. So I’m going to try to keep my rating as fair as possible and not punish the author for my own mistake.

The world of the Faire seems very intriguing. It looks like a lot of world building has happened in previous books and I really like the little that still happened in this book. The author has obviously put a lot of thought into her world and shows a great love for little details, which make the place even more alive and real.

Zion is an interesting man. I can’t help but relate to his work as a librarian, since I work with books as well. I always love to read about characters who truly appreciate books. Unfortunately for Zion, his world is currently in the middle of falling apart. Everything’s a mess. Usually, a bit of rope bondage helps him calm down, but that’s not enough this time. While Zion likes to be put into elaborate bondage and loves the feel of rope on his skin, he’s not into any other BDSM things. He’s neither a submissive, nor a masochist. He’s just kinky. I really liked that about him.

The sex scenes were very hot. Vin and Zion are very versatile and open to new things. The scenes were a good mix of explicit and non-explicit. Not every single time the two of them had sex was described in elaborate detail. Instead, the author chose to only show us the times when the sex was important to the plot and the relationship.

I liked that Vin was so open from the beginning. He told Zion that he wasn’t good at the guessing game and thus needed to be told explicitly what he was supposed to do or not do. I hate it when MCs don’t talk to each other and just assume things all the time!

I especially loved reading about Zion’s work with the ancient texts he found. I think those were my favourite scenes by far.

There isn’t much to complain about. The plot wasn’t exactly full of breathless suspense, but I still felt well entertained. I just wasn’t fully invested in the story all the time, which was probably a result of my lacking knowledge of previous events.

I’m sure I would have liked “Faire Secrets” even better if I had read the previous instalments. It has definitely made me curious about them and I want to read the first three parts now.

The cover by Fiona Jade is a bit generic. I think it could have done without the shirtless man. A greater focus on the books and scrolls might have worked better.

Sales Links

Loose Id LLC

7104e-waxcreative-amazon-kindle

6f71e-all2bromance2bbutton

Book details:

ebook, 257 pages

Published May 17th 2016 by Loose Id

Series: Part 4 of the Faire Folk series – add to your Goodreads shelf here:

  1. Faire Fugitive
  2. Faire Protector
  3. Faire Diviner
  4. Faire Secrets

Enjoy A Coffee Sip and Book Break with Choices by Stevie Woods (excerpt and giveaway)

Choices Banner

Title:  Choices

Author: Stevie Woods

Publisher: Torquere Press

Release Date: September 31, 2016

Heat Level: 5 – Erotica

Pairing: Male/Male

Length: 15,600 Words

Genre: Romance, Contemporary Romance, Erotic-Romance, Gay Romance

Add to Goodreads

choices1400

Synopsis

Best friends since kindergarten, Ben and James are separated after college graduation by their different choices. Ben stays in their small hometown while James heads off to New York with dreams of money and success. Ben works to make his life follow the path he wants, and dreams of the day when James realizes he made a mistake and comes back home.

Each man promises to stay in touch, but this falls by the wayside as James’ life in the big city takes off, leaving Ben yearning for a dream that gradually fades as the years pass.

In New York, James finds that not all dreams are worth the cost of a wrong choice.

(Previously published by Amber Quill Press.)

Excerpt

When Ben had written to tell James of his success and pleasure in his new work, James had responded positively, but still wondered why Ben “didn’t really give it a go and study architecture” before going on to tell Ben about the lovely new end table he’d bought for his apartment.

“He still after you to take that architecture course?”

Ben jerked in surprise. He hadn’t heard Suzie come in, but shouldn’t have been surprised at her reading over his shoulder. Suzie was still very much a handful as always. It was no wonder he loved her so much.

“Don’t you know how rude that is?” He ought to try to teach her some manners.

“You should take it to your room if it’s private,” she said, grabbing some orange juice from the fridge. “Anyhow, did he?”

Ben sighed. “Yeah. He’s doing so well, he thinks I’m missing out.”

“Each to his own. You know how much I think of James, but he sure is blinkered about you.”

Ben glanced at his sister, wondering if he was just being too sensitive or if she really had guessed how he felt about James. He’d been thinking of telling his parents the truth about his leanings, but hadn’t managed it yet. It was with a sense of relief he heard Suzie add, “Thinks everyone wants to be just like him.”

“Go on; get busy with your homework.”

She stuck her tongue out at him, but left the kitchen, and after he heard her thump her way upstairs, Ben re-read the letter.

It went on that way for some time, and Ben allowed James to dominate their correspondence with news of his work and home life, the new friends he’d made and his varied social life. Gradually, however, James’ letters became less frequent, sliding to one every fortnight and then monthly, until finally they were sporadic and Ben received the last one from him about twenty months after James had left.

For about six months after that Ben continued to write about once a month with news of his family and information about Ben’s own version of success, but he finally accepted defeat when James never responded to any of them. Not even the last one where Ben had given James a kind of ultimatum: respond to tell me you want me to keep in touch or I’ll assume you wish me to stop writing to you.

Disappointment wasn’t a strong enough a word to describe how Ben felt about James’ abandonment of his past connections. He refused to consider that James had discarded him; that was just too hard to bear. He couldn’t help but think James’ new life must be everything he ever wanted, everything he dreamed of, and his hometown friends were a memory he preferred to leave behind. Sadly, Ben acknowledged the odds were that a person as wonderful as James had found that someone special and old friends—even best friends like him—were superfluous.

As much as he disliked it, Ben considered trying to email James, though if James had wanted to keep in touch he could easily have gone that route himself, but James hadn’t bothered. It seemed James wanted to let the contact fade.

For a moment, Ben considered going to New York and visiting James to see for himself just how his friend was faring in his new life, but he soon dismissed the idea. It was doubtful Ben’s unexpected arrival would be welcome. Ben would probably talk too much anyway, tell James more than he wanted to hear and more than Ben could afford to reveal. Though part of Ben thought that surely James knew how he really felt about him. Ben wasn’t too good at keeping his feelings under wraps. He’d believed, too, that James shared his attachment, but that James just wasn’t ready at the time. Perhaps one day…

The day James had left for New York, Ben had told him that he had his own dream to follow. Maybe it was time to stop living his life as an extension of James Lilley and concentrate on making more of himself. Then, when the day came that James finally did come home, he would find a new, improved Benjamin Short waiting for him.

Purchase

Torquere Press

Choices Square

Meet the Author

STEVIE WOODS is a Brit living in the Northwest of England who has left her day job behind – though it’s a quandary that there still doesn’t seem to be much more free time in her day!

A long time avid reader of romance with a dash of adventure, Stevie only stumbled over ‘slash’ pairings a few years ago and was an immediate convert. Having dabbled with writing on and off for years, it wasn’t long before Stevie was tapping away on the keyboard inventing stories around two hot guys, gaining her first publication in the summer of 2007.

Stevie likes reading stories with a good strong plot and believable characters and does her best to create them in her own work.

Stevie has a soft spot for Historical settings but also thoroughly enjoys SF and Fantasy, Paranormal and Contemporary, finding the similarities as intriguing as the differences. Stevie already has a variety of novels, novellas and short stories released by MLR Press, Phaze Books and Torquere Press.

Website | Facebook | Twitter |
Goodreads | Pinterest

Giveaway

a Rafflecopter giveaway
https://widget-prime.rafflecopter.com/launch.js

Blog Button 2

An Alisa Review: Night Train To Naples (Night Train #1) by Carolina Valdez

Rating:  4 stars out of 5

 

night-train-to-naples-mlr-pressThe hot, urgent passion of an immortal for his human lover, the vengeful vampire who wants to kill them, and the world of precious stones.

 

After seven-hundred years, Alexandros Nicolaides has adjusted to life as an immortal. Employed by a New Orleans diamond courier, the gemologist travels to Italy in the hope of gaining a new customer for that business. On the night train from Rome to Naples, he confirms what he’s suspected–someone is following him.

 

Human Dante Rocco has his reasons for tailing the tall blond. Unaware he follows an immortal, he’s in for a bad shock. When Alex rescues him from thugs, a hot, urgent sexual bond flares between these two rivals for the courier account. As they struggle with the reality of their relationship, they discover they’re now the ones being pursued–by an unstable, vengeful vampire.

 

Carolina Valdez did a nice job with this story.  These characters feel an instant connection for each other, but feel they should be holding back because they are so different from each other.  Alex begins to full embrace their relationship while it scares Dante.

 

Dante is shocked when he is thrown into the world of immortals when following a rival diamond courier.  He feels a connection to Alex, but doesn’t know if he can accept his vampire nature fully.  When he is faced with never seeing Alex again he decides to jump.

 

This story is told from both characters’ points of view so we can see each of their internal struggles.  Both of them want each other, but don’t want to think about what will happen after they have to go back to their jobs after Naples.  The story if left with a bit of a cliffhanger to look forward to the next book in the series and I can’t wait to read it.

 

Cover art is very nice and caught my eye.

 

Sales Links: MLR Press | Amazon | ARe

 

Book Details:

ebook, 114 pages

Published: 2nd Edition August 25, 2016 by MLR Press

Edition Language: English

Release Day Tour: Morning My Angel by Sue Brown- (excerpt and giveaway)

Morning My Angel – Sue Brown

Author: Sue Brown
 
Release Date: September 29 2016
 
Length: 265 pages
 
Blurb
 
Josh Cooper, top US security field agent, is sent on an inter-agency assignment to London, when a partner in his firm goes missing in suspicious circumstances. Used to working in sole charge of his well-honed team, he clashes heads with the handsome, but pompous Cal, his UK co-operator and superior. Josh’s gut tells him something is wrong. He’s being kept out of the loop and Cal’s agenda is running on a different path. 

He also has a personal issue to deal with. He’s involved in a cyber-relationship with “Charlie”, an unknown man who connected with Josh by accident. Their banter has led to deeper respect and a sexual interest, but now Josh is faced with a growing attraction to Cal. Between this conflict and the tension of the mission, Josh’s heart and head are overworked and confused. Things can’t get much worse. 

Then Josh discovers the enemies he’s seeking have a new target: him.
 
Author Bio
 

a Rafflecopter giveaway
https://widget-prime.rafflecopter.com/launch.js