Category: LGBTQ Book Reviews

Need Another Love Lesson? Check Out Short Stay (Love Lessons #3.5) by Heidi Cullinan (author interview, excerpt and giveaway)

Short Stay

Short Stay (Love Lessons #3.5) by Heidi Cullinan
Release Date May 24

Buy it at Amazon

 

 

 

Why Did You Write This Story?

I hadn’t planned on writing this story at all. I’d meant to write something for my Patreon readers as a Christmas present, but it got long and complicated, so I asked them what they wanted in a short story from a known character universe. They voted, and Baz and Elijah won, though Walter and Kelly were only one vote down, and the Special Delivery series characters had a strong showing too, so I decided what the heck, let’s include them all.

I meant the story to be short, but I don’t do short well. I was having too much fun playing with the characters and thinking of things to include I knew would delight my readers. I told them, as I wrote, that every time I got stuck I asked myself, “What would the readers want right now?” then tried to give it to them. I didn’t back down from anything cheesy, didn’t let any critical voices in my head.

The result was something I loved writing and my patrons loved reading. In truth all stories are written for readers, but this one really was. It wouldn’t have happened without them. It was designed with specific readers in mind, ones I’ve come to know and appreciate more deeply in the past six months. It felt exactly like it was meant to: a gift to readers I care very much about. And they enthusiastically let me share it with everyone else, so here we are.

You crossed the streams on this one big time, sending the Love Lessons characters into the Special Delivery characters’ world. Why did you do that?

It started as a lark. I’d meant for Baz and Elijah to go to Vegas in Lonely Hearts in an early draft, so I was eager to send them there now. And I thought, well, the Special Delivery characters have to say hi, since they live there. But I couldn’t resist sending them to Herod’s itself, and then everything snowballed. I should have known better. Randy always steals the show. But it’s okay, because he does it so well.

Will what happened in Short Stay become canon in either or both series?

Yes. It doesn’t change much in Special Delivery except now Randy wants a Tesla. For the Love Lessons series, though…well, I’m not giving any spoilers, but it changed a lot in what I had planned for the rest of the White House gang story arc. Which is fine, because shaking things up and making me scared always gives me good energy in a story.

What’s next in your production queue?

My muses have been fickle lately, and every time I make plans they thwart them. What I’m working on right now, for better or for worse, are two more after-HEA stories: Shelter the Sea, a novella in the Roosevelt series, and Enjoy the Dance, a short novel in the Dancing series. (Yes, Dance With Me is part of a series now.)

Shelter the Sea is still slightly amorphous, but essentially Emmet is trying to help a friend in trouble and doing a little more growing up in the process. Enjoy the Dance began as my attempt to chronicle what happened to Ed and Laurie between Dance With Me and when they appeared in Lonely Hearts, and how the radical change in the state of marriage equality affected them personally. We also find out what happened to Duon.

After that, I’m working on the next full novels in the Love Lessons, Roosevelt, and Clockwork Love series. As per usual I’m also working on several other things as well. What specifically comes next is difficult to say, but suffice it to say, something will float to the top.

Short Stay Playlist (https://open.spotify.com/user/12123422997/playlist/02r0maFAKwNHRxQEDDKpC5)

Short Stay (Love Lessons #3.5) by Heidi Cullinan

BlurbShort Stay Blog Tour

Hot messes have a hard time with happily ever after.

Baz Acker and Elijah Prince have it all. They’re engaged, and their wedding is guaranteed to be a spectacle no event will ever top. So why are they hunkered down in a quiet corner of the Acker mansion, restless and edgy while they wait out the holidays?

When Baz suggests a road trip with Walter and Kelly to Las Vegas, it sounds like an ideal escape, but it turns out Vegas only amplifies their unease. Elijah can’t slough off the self-hating his parents programmed into him, and he worries how that will affect his marriage. Baz, crippled en route because of too much time spent in the car without rest, must face the truth that his wealth and influence can’t always counteract the limits his disability will put on his—and Elijah’s—life.

With help from their friends, a wily poker player, a take-no-prisoners drag queen, and a smooth-talking casino owner, they face the truth that happiness is a state of mind, not a destination where they book a stay. What happens in Vegas won’t stay in Vegas—it will follow them all the way down the aisle.

 

Excerpt

Picking a Vegas Hotel

Elijah grinned wickedly and held up his phone. “Giles and Aaron are absolutely green that they didn’t get to come. They said they would have totally been our drivers.”

“They aren’t twenty-one.” Baz wiped his mouth with his napkin. “They wouldn’t be able to go to most bars, and they wouldn’t be allowed on the casino floor.”

Kelly wrinkled his nose. “I don’t know if I want to gamble.”

Walter nudged him. “You can do a few penny slots. Or be my arm candy while I play poker.”

Elijah flicked gently at the bridge of Baz’s glasses. “You should play poker. They’d just think your glasses were part of your schtick.”

Baz stifled a wince at how that small gesture made his eyes throb. “Craps is more my game.”

They talked nonstop for the last leg of their trip, imagining the adventures they were about to have, looking up possible excursions on their phones. Even Elijah began to get excited. “I had no idea there was so much to do. Now I wish we had more than a few days to stay.”

“I wish I didn’t have to get back to work.” Walter was driving, or rather he was behind the wheel while the Tesla situated itself precisely in the lane. “But alas, I do. Kelly and I both have to be in Minneapolis by the fourth.”

They came over the crest of a hill, and suddenly there it was: Las Vegas. The city sprawled across the desert, a throbbing oasis in a sea of sand. Great grids of brown dotted with tiny shapes of houses until the Strip erupted, framed by the mountains in the distance. It would have been more impressive at night with all the lights, but two in the afternoon wasn’t anything to sneeze at either.

Baz had programmed the hotel into the navigation, but Kelly rerouted them in a detour of the Strip with a stop at the famous sign. They couldn’t find a place to park, but plenty of other people were slowing down to get a glimpse. Kelly managed to snap a picture through the moonroof.

“Okay, let’s see this hotel,” Walter declared, and they were on to their final destination.

Baz had a little misgiving about his choice as they took in the grandeur of the casinos on the Strip. He wanted to impress Elijah without overwhelming him, a fine line Baz was still learning how to negotiate. The smaller casino had seemed so much more them, though he’d admit mostly he’d seen “ten rainbow flags” and “resident drag queen” and leapt. Plus their suite had a view of the Strip. It also had a hot tub, the photo of which had Baz already thinking about how he’d get busy in it. But the Strip casinos were varying degrees of awesome too. Super-kitschy, elegant, modern—everything was there. As they drove by Bellagio, Baz kicked himself, thinking he should have booked there. He almost had, but they hadn’t had a suite available, and the pictures of the lobby made Baz imagine Elijah bitching about being out of place.

He wanted this trip to be perfect. He wanted it to make Elijah relax and show him that no matter what, Baz would always make everything okay.

As they pulled up to Herod’s Poker Room and Casino, Baz began to feel a lot better about his choice for their accommodations. It was elegant in a more traditional, understated way. It reminded Baz a little bit from the outside of his mother’s favorite old hotel in St. Paul, both the architecture and the quiet dignity of the bell staff. It was nice without being imposing. Small enough, too, that Baz could flash some money and probably get some VIP treatment.

He felt pretty good about his choice before they got out of the car, but what sealed the deal was what he saw as he exited the Tesla and handed the keys to the valet. Along the side of the building, just under the overhang, hung the Nevada flag, the US flag, and four bright, proud rainbow flags. When Elijah spied them, he visibly relaxed.

Baz did too. This was going to fix everything. Elijah’s nerves, his quietness, his lack of faith that Baz could take care of him.

He was sure of it.

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In the Spotlight with Broken Soldier by Jamie Lynn Miller (excerpt and giveaway

Title: Broken Soldier
Author: Jamie Lynn Miller
Genre: M/M Romance
Release Date: March 5, 2016
Sergeant Connor Finley and Sergeant Shawn Weller are dedicated soldiers working covert ops for Shadow Unit — a joint UK/US anti-terrorism task force.

Partners in the field and out, they had been through hell together for the last four years and made it through standing side by side. But when their latest undercover op to bring down an arms dealer plunges them into a world of drugs, sex and violence, Shawn must literally get in bed with the enemy in order to complete the mission. And Connor is forced to watch, helpless, as his partner is broken into pieces.Will love be enough to put them both back together or will this be their final mission? WARNING: Contains scenes of drug use, graphic sex and realistic situations.




Connor cut himself off as Shawn let out an angry yell and swung a wild punch at him. Connor was forced to release Shawn’s wrist to avoid his partner’s fist, which would have caught him right in the face. He stumbled back a step, hitting the refrigerator, nearly losing his footing on the items strewn about on the floor. Just as he straightened up, Shawn grabbed a coffee mug off the counter and hurled it at Connor’s head. Connor dropped to a crouch and the mug smashed into the refrigerator.

Keeping low, Connor went at Shawn like an American football player, ducking under his partner’s arms and catching him around his middle. Shawn’s back hit the edge of the counter and both of them slid to the floor. Shawn’s fists began pummeling at Connor’s arms and chest as Connor got Shawn first onto his back then flipped over onto his stomach, straddling his waist. Shawn tried to buck him off, yelling angrily and Connor was amazed at the strength the desperate craving for the heroin gave him.
“Please, Connor, please,” Shawn pleaded with him, breathing hard. “I just need a little bit. Just a little and I’ll be fine…”
Connor quickly pulled the syringe out of his pocket and used his mouth to pull off the cap, which he spit out onto the floor.
He swallowed hard. “I’m so sorry, mate,” he said, voice rough, then injected Shawn with the sedative.
“I need it, Connor, I need it…” Shawn mumbled as his eyes closed moments later, succumbing to the effects of the sedative.
Connor slid off of Shawn’s body then, slumping against the counter next to him, his face in his hands, gutted to the core by what had just transpired. A lump formed in his throat as he lifted his head and looked at his partner, lying there unconscious. Shawn’s face was drawn, flushed and wet with sweat, battered and bruised with dark circles under his eyes that had looked at him with such pain and desperation.
Shawn was the strongest, bravest man Connor had ever known, now reduced to this broken soldier before him.
All because of duty and loyalty to his unit and his mission. For the first time Connor feared that Shawn had been shattered into too many pieces to ever be put back together again.
His chest constricted at the thought, the grief and anger inside him suddenly too much to contain any longer. He grabbed for Shawn’s hand and held on tight as he broke down, the first sob tearing through him. He cried for Shawn, who was fighting a battle he might not be able to win and he cried for the two of them, wondering how they’d survive if Shawn didn’t.
He cried until there was nothing left inside him, until his eyes ran dry and his throat burned. He gathered Shawn into his arms then and held him tight, wishing he could take his place, but instead willing every ounce of strength he had into him, the only thing he could do.

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Jamie Lynn Miller has been writing fiction since childhood and decided to take the plunge and go pro in 2008, finding to her amazement that people truly enjoyed her love stories. She’s a romantic at heart, and her tales reflect the desire we all have to find “the one,” persevering through trials and heartache for that happy ending.

 

Jamie has a degree in fine arts and has spent the last twenty years working as a graphic designer, though she’d much rather be writing. She was born in Chicago and still lives there today with her husband and their two furry, four-footed children, er… cats.

 

If she’s not brainstorming story ideas, you can find Jamie at a sci-fi convention, in front of a furnace doing glass blowing, or on a mat twisted into a yoga pose.



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A Stella Review: Sweet by Alysa Constantine

Rating: 3,25 out of 5 stars

SweetNot every love story is a romance novel.

For Jules Burns, a lonely baker, it is the memory of his deceased husband, Andy. For Teddy Flores, a numbed-to-the-world accountant who accidentally stumbles into his bakery, it is a voyage of discovery into his deep connections to pleasure, to the world, and to his own heart.

Sweet is also the story of how we tell stories—of what we expect and need from a love story. The narrator is on to you, Reader, and wants to give you a love story that doesn’t always fit the bill. There are ghosts to exorcise, and jobs and money to worry about. Sweet is a love story, but it also reminds us that love is never quite what we expect, nor quite as blissfully easy as we hope.

I’m in the minority here cause readers seem to have loved Sweet. I didn’t love it but I liked it. I don’t think I’ll going to reread it in the next future but I am so grateful to have discovered a new to me author.

Jules is still recovering from the death of his husband Andy, a recovering spent in Buttermilk’s kitchen, his bakery, doing what he knows and does better, be a pastry chef. He doesn’t have a lot of relationships outside her kitchen, apart from the awesome ‘Trice. When he meets and starts to feel something for the cute Teddy he has no idea how to act on it. Maybe he is not ready to leave Andy on the past. But he has to make space in his heart for a new unexpected love or he will lose his second chance at love.

I had little troubles with the book from the start, I liked the writing since it was unusual in some parts and well done, but too many times the sentences were too long and I had to go back and reread them because it was so easy to me to be lost in them. Surely it was just my limit but it was a huge deterrent.

Moreover I didn’t love the MCs, I found them childish and unsure of their minds. I still liked them, I get glimpses of real life in their scenes, tender and romantic till the end. Although all the positive elements, Sweet didn’t fully catch my attention. I have to admit the first half was pretty good, it warmed my heart reading Jules’ blog posts and the teasing with Teddy. Then there was a change, or better an addiction in the cast whose name I’m not going to mention cause I don’t want to spoil it, from that moment to me the story lost its value and credibility and I wasn’t able to find something good to cling on.

I gave Sweet 3,25 stars because at the end I liked it and I’m still curious to read more by Alysia Constantine.

The book design and cover illustrations by CB Messer is simple, clean and different. Nicely done.

Sales Links:  Interlude Press | ARe | Amazon

Book Details:

Published February 4th 2016 by Interlude Press
Kindle Edition, 209 pages
ASIN B01BA0E5SG
Edition Language English

A Barb the Zany Old Lady Review: Loud and Clear by Aidan Wayne

Rating: 4 stars out of 5

Loud and ClearThis is a very, very enjoyable story of a young cab driver, Jaxon, who suffers from dyslexia and has been told how dumb he is all his life. It’s also about a young executive, Caleb, who stutters so much he finds it difficult to mingle socially.

Jaxon likes his job as a cab driver. After all, he gets to meet people from all walks of life, and even though he can’t read, he’s memorized all the streets and important landmarks, so he has no problem getting around the city. One Tuesday night, he picks up a fare at a bar and takes him to Lincoln Towers, a fancy apartment complex that Jaxon remembers from his efforts to remember important buildings. The fare is Caleb, and as each succeeding Tuesday passes with Jaxon being called to pick up Caleb, the two men begin to learn a little about each other. Caleb doesn’t speak much, and when his stuttering is really bad, he resorts to sign language or leaving notes on the cab receipt. When he finds out Jaxon has difficulty reading those notes, he writes them in a way that is more easily read by most dyslexics.

One night when answering a call at a local bar, Jaxon is dismayed to find a drunken Caleb being escorted home by another man. When he learns the man plans to take him to his own place, Jaxon intervenes. Knowing he could lose his job, he confronts the man, demanding to take Caleb to Caleb’s home and telling the man that he knows Caleb well and knows he would want to go home. Though he risked his job for it, he’s actually saved Caleb from non-consensual sex, and when Caleb remembers most of it the next day, he reaches out to get in touch with Jaxon.

Though at first fearing recriminations, he quickly learns that Caleb is interested in treating him to dinner and thus begins a relationship between two men from seemingly completely different worlds. But at the core is the fact that both men are really not all that much different from each other. When Jaxon teaches himself enough basic sign language to make communication with Caleb easier, Caleb is floored. And Caleb forces Jaxon to see that he’s really not dumb or stupid; it takes a very intelligent man to memorize all the streets in the city and to teach himself enough sign language to communicate.

The author moves the story along quite quickly as the men’s dates are detailed, but the time in between the dates advances rather fast. The characters are so well done and so endearing, I would have liked this story to have been longer. There’s no explicit sex—just a budding romance and the chance for both men to find their soulmates with the most unlikely people. But it works, and they work, and I’m very impressed by this story from an author I haven’t previously read.

~~~~~

Cover art by L.C. Chase features a cab in motion with a blurred background reminiscent of the speed of the cab driving down the street and with bright dots symbolizing snow or freezing rain. It’s bright and colorful and perfect for this book.

Sales Links:  Riptide Publishing | ARe | Amazon

Book Details:

ebook, 93 pages
Published May 23rd 2016 by Riptide Publishing
Original TitleLoud and Clear
ISBN 1626494347 (ISBN13: 9781626494343)
Edition LanguageEnglish

Celebrate the Release of Loud and Clear blog tour with Aidan Wayne (giveaway)

Loud and Clear

Loud and Clear by Aidan Wayne
Riptide Publishing
Cover art by L.C. Chase

Read an Excerpt/Buy it Here

About Loud and Clear

Jaxon is getting by fine, severe dyslexia or not. Being a cab driver means he doesn’t need to read much, and the job has its perks. The pay isn’t bad, the people can be interesting, and having memorized the city streets keeps him from feeling too stupid.

When he picks up Caleb, a quiet fare in a nice suit, Jaxon doesn’t think anything of it. Then he ends up driving Caleb home the next week too, and the next, and the next. Eventually Caleb tries to communicate—by writing things down. Turns out that Caleb has such a bad stutter he spends most of his time mute.

If only Jaxon had an easier time reading what Caleb had to say. But he’s interested in trying, and Caleb seems interested back. They discover that, with a little bit of effort, it isn’t so hard to make themselves understood. Especially when what’s growing between them is definitely worth talking about.

About Aidan Wayne

Aidan Wayne is a big believer in character-driven stories with happy endings. This is not to say that stories can’t contain a little (or a lot) of grief, just that at the end of it all expect there to be bandages and hugs. They particularly like to write about minority characters because damn it, they deserve happy endings too.

When not writing, Aidan enjoys practicing aerial, martial arts, and ASL, and watching reality cooking shows. They are probably in the middle of twelve projects as you read this.

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Giveaway

To celebrate the release of Loud and Clear, Aidan is giving away $15 in Riptide credit. Leave a comment to enter the contest. Entries close at midnight, Eastern time, on May 28, 2016. Contest is NOT restricted to U.S. entries. Thanks for following the tour, and don’t forget to leave your contact info!

A MelanieM Review: A Place to Call Their Own by Dean Pace-Frech

Rating:  4 stars out of 5

A Place To Call Their OwnFrank Greerson and Gregory Young have been discharged from the Army and are headed to their childhood homes. They both defied their parents in 1861 when they joined the Army. After battling southern rebels and preserving the Union of the United States of America, the two men set out to battle the Kansas Prairie and build a life together. Once they find their claim, they encounter common obstacles to life on the Kansas Prairie in 1866: Native Americans, tornadoes, wild animals, and weather.

When a prairie fire destroys their crops and takes their neighbor’s lives, Frank and Gregory are instructed to find their young son’s aunt. Faced with leaving a destroyed claim, the railroad coming through their land, and dwindling funds, Frank and Gregory must decide whether to leave the place they have worked hard to make their own or fulfill their friends’ dying wishes.

When I first started into A Place to Call Their Own the pacing and style of the story was at once both so different from all the other stories I’ve read  (or am reading) and yet so  oddly familiar as well.  It was in the matter of fact tone of the narration, the “plain speaking” manner of its characters, and the precisely lived hours of their days that Dean Pace-Frech lays out for us that niggled at my brain, telling me I recognized, not the story or characters, no…but the old style, slower approach of storytelling and the affection for the past in the author’s heart.

Then it hit me…the author already laid it out for us…right at the beginning…something I had glossed over too quickly.

“Six miles beyond them, two bachelors were living in one house. They had taken two farms, and built the house on the line between them…they cooked and ate together in the middle of the house.” —Laura Ingalls Wilder, Little House on the Prairie

Dean Pace-Frech may have used that quote from my beloved Laura Ingalls Wilder as inspiration but maybe he loved the matter of fact every day descriptions too.  For some of A Place to Call Their Own conjures up visions of the Little House on the Prairie sage, M/M style, in a wonderful way, making history alive again through the lives of two men who love one another.

As we enter the story, Frank Greerson and Gregory Young are already a couple, albeit a hidden one, and have decided on a course of action, taking their savings and  heading out to the 1861 Kansas territory and making a land grab for the free land where they figure they can be themselves,  a “safe” couple.

Their back story will come along later.  Its their journey, their relatives, their wagons, cows, building the cabin, interaction with the local Osage Indians, that will have a lovely (and well researched ) feel. The author includes the expansion of the railroad and the Homestead act and the villainy associated with claim jumping. Such a life always included its perils, and angst.  And both young men still have much growing up to do, even having served in the Civil War and survived.

This story is low on sex and high on love and survival, in a place where they find that having used their energy to make an extra bed in their first prairie house just might ensure that their reputations stay intact enough for their neighbors to lend them a hand when necessary.

I sank into this story much that same as I did the Little House in the Prairie books and when I came to the end, I was saddened to see that there was not another waiting for me so I could know how the journey continues for Frank and Gregory and others.  That was really my only issue here, that the story  ends too abruptly.

I hope that Dean Pace-Frech  will consider taking it further, letting us know what the next leg in their journey was and how it turned out.  A new M/M Western Historical Saga is just the thing I’ve been looking for.  I’m sure I’m not the only one.

Consider  A Place to Call Their Own by Dean Pace-Frech a story I absolutely recommend if you love historical stories and a look into the past.  Or even are, as I am, totally fond of Little House on the Prairie.  Pick this up, and prepare to fall in love all  over again.

 

Cover art by Written Ink Designs.  I like the cover but its too generic and I could swear I’ve seen it used before.

Sales Links:  JMS Books LLC  |  Amazon

Book Details:

Kindle Edition, 156 pages
Published May 31st 2015 by JMS Books LLC (first published July 1st 2012)
ASINB00X64JP0S
Edition LanguageEnglish