Category: M/M Book Reviews

A Barb the Zany Old Lady Audiobook Review: Let it Ride (Pickup Men #2) by L.C. Chase and Dorian Bane (Narrator)

Rating: 4 stars out of 5

Let It Ride audiobookBridge Sullivan, pickup man and best friend of Marty Fairgrave (Pickup Men) has a secret. He’s lusting after EMT Eric Palmer and the problem is that everyone, including Eric, thinks he’s straight. But Bridge knows his mind and his heart, and he’s kept his past experience with a man secret so it shouldn’t surprise him when his flirtations with Eric aren’t taken seriously.

Bridge is a nice guy—a great friend, sweet and helpful and always there when you need him—but he’s not gay and Eric has been burned much too often in the past to take a chance on a guy who might change his mind and want to go back to dating a woman. Eric is a New York City native, complete with a realistic accent thanks to narrator Dorian Bane, but he feels unworthy of love. His parents had put him in foster care when he was thirteen and told them he was gay; most foster parents wouldn’t keep him either, and then the two men he loved in the past dumped him—one of them for a woman. It’s no wonder he’s guarding his heart. And Bridge will break it for sure. That is something he’s betting on.

Against his better judgement, Eric agrees to go out with Bridge, but only as friends with benefits. No more. So when things get hot and heavy between them, and Bridge continues to tell him he wants to date and get close to him, Eric bolts. Though he doesn’t want to lose them, he leaves the close friends he’s made in the rodeo circuit. He also leaves the man he cares about because he feels he needs to go now before the pain is too great. Of course, he then finds out that the pain is already too great. Will he man-up and go back? Will Bridge come looking for him? Or will the two “let it ride”?

I enjoyed this story, and I think it may be partly because the potential between Bridge and Eric was there and intrigued me in the previous story, and it’s partly due to the narration of Dorian Bane. I actually didn’t care for the voice he gave Bridge, but I was impressed by the vast difference in the two voices of the MCs and the variety of secondary character voices, all of which were different and distinctive. And that’s the bottom line for me—how well did the narrator handle the narration and vocalization of the story. So kudos to the narrator and kudos to LC Chase for a great story. Yes, I wanted to smack Eric upside the head quite a few times because his “poor me” litany wears a little thin, but in his case, with his history, it’s a reasonable reaction. I had to stay awake last night to finish the story because sleeping while the romance was still in doubt just wasn’t happening for me. So thanks for the HEA, Ms. Chase!

Though part of a series, Let It Ride can be read as a standalone. This is a wonderful MM story for readers who like a little NYC spice with their cowboys, GFY or men new to gay sex, virgins(!), hurt-comfort, and a delightful cast of secondary characters.

~~~~~

Cover Art by L.C. Chase features a close-up of a handsome, young cowboy, complete with large black cowboy hat. There’s a bronco rider in the background, symbolizing the rodeo in which this MC is a pickup man—a very fitting cover for this story.

Sales Links: Riptide Publishing | Audible | Amazon

Audiobook Details:
5 hrs 32 mins

Audible Audio, 6 pages
Published February 10th 2016 by Riptide Publishing (first published May 25th 2014)
Original TitleLet it Ride
ASINB01BLP6GZ0
Edition LanguageEnglish
SeriesPickup Men #2
Literary AwardsEPIC (Eppie) Award (2015), Contemporary Romance, Bisexual Book Award Nominee (2015)

A Jeri Review: The Law of Attraction By Jay Northcote

Rating: 3.5 stars out of 5

The Law of AttractionWhen a professional relationship turns personal, it’s impossible to resist the law of attraction.

Alec Rowland is a high-flying lawyer in a London firm whose career is his life. He doesn’t have time for relationships and his sexuality is a closely guarded secret. After picking up a cute guy on a Friday night, Alec’s world is rocked to its foundations when his one night stand shows up in the office on Monday morning—as the new temp on his team.

Ed Piper is desperate to prove himself in his new job. The last thing he needs is to be distracted by a crush on his boss. It’s hard to ignore the attraction he feels, even though Alec’s a difficult bastard to work for.

Both men strive to maintain a professional relationship, but tempers fray, passions ignite, and soon they’re both falling hard and fast. If they’re ever going to find a way to be together, Alec needs to be honest about who he really is because Ed won’t go back in the closet for anyone.
This was my first book by Jay Northcote and it won’t be my last! (For the record- 3 ½ stars means I really liked it!)

Alec is a closeted lawyer at a very successful law firm. His goal to become partner is becoming a reality- but he feels like he has to stay in the closet for it. His best friend acts as his arm candy/ girlfriend at various events to keep questions at bay. But sometimes his needs are too much.

Ed is out and proud and ready to start his new job. A night on the town leads to a seriously hot encounter with a stranger. Until he finds out the stranger is his new boss. They agree to be platonic work colleagues but you know the saying, the best laid plans….

The chemistry between Alec and Ed is off the charts hot. Alec turns into a jerk to try to deny the attraction to Ed, and honestly the way Ed just kind of accepted that but then also fell into his arms at the same time put me off a bit. But Ed’s strength to NOT go back into the closet. That made me want to cheer.

Watching Alec come to terms with who he is and accepting himself was a page turner. Even though he was a jerk, you knew why and you were cheering for him to own his truth. And Ed- standing up for himself- for HIS truth- was awesome. I just wanted to high five him!

Definitely give this book a read. Although there is the closet/no closet thing, the angst level is fairly low and the hotness level is very high.

The cover art with the smirking guy is such a perfect representation of Alec!

Sales Links:   Amazon

Book Details:

Kindle Edition, 173 pages
Published February 5th 2016 by Jaybird Press
ASINB01B6NSXD0
Edition LanguageEnglish

A Stella Review: Second to None (The Breakfast Club #3) by Felice Stevens

RATING  3 out of 5 stars

Second to NoneNightclub owner Marcus Feldman never met a man he didn’t love, at least for the night. Although his best friends have all found love, Marcus shuns their advice to commit to one man and settle down. His past has taught him monogamy and marriage is for fools, and Marcus is anything but a fool.

Tyler Reiss’s dream of dancing professionally is unexpectedly cut short and replaced by a different kind of love. He trades in his ballet slippers for go go boots, and spends his nights dancing at the hottest gay club in the city. Flirting with the customers for tips is easy, but resisting the dark and sexy Marcus is becoming harder to do with each passing day.

Unforeseen circumstances bring Marcus and Tyler closer and though they give in to their mutual passion, both still struggle to guard their hearts. When crises threaten, Tyler and Marcus find their strength in each other rather than falling apart. Tyler must choose to either run, or stay and fight for the life he wants, while Marcus realizes that love doesn’t mean losing himself and opens his heart, making him a better man in the end.

I loved The Breakfast Club series by Felice Stevens but this third installment, Second to None, disappointed me. I’m not saying it’s a bad book because it isn’t, and in fact I gave it three stars. The plot worked well, the development of the relationship between Marcus and Tyler was good. Maybe I was so eager to read Marcus’ story, my expectations were too high, I don’t know. I simply didn’t like it as well as the other books in the series.

I read this book and even though it is ( or better, it could have been) emotional and bring tears to my eyes, I felt nothing. I surprisingly struggled a lot to connect with the characters and I was detached through the whole story.

Probably my biggest problem with Second to None was it didn’t felt real. Especially in the character of little Lily. I was disconcerted about what happened around the girl and how the MCs acted with her. I have read a lot of book with children in them because I’m a sucker for these kind of stories, but in this case in my opinion she wasn’t well defined for a child of four years. I get the feeling they weren’t very considerate of her. And at the end what I got was a shallow portrait and lacking in a lot of background about Tyler’s past (just to make an example, but I honestly was dubious about few little details during the whole book).

Yes I’m very disappointed, Second to None is not what I was hoping to read, Felice is a great author, I am used to her great stories and I am astonished she didn’t surprised me with something amazing.

The cover art by Reese Dante is the only thing that worked to me. Well done, in line with the whole series’ covers and in perfect Reese style.

Sales Links:   ARe | Amazon

BOOK DETAILS

ebook, 248 pages
Published January 28th 2016 by Felice Stevens
Edition LanguageEnglish
SeriesThe Breakfast Club #3

Series The Breakfast Club with links to Stella’s reviews:

A Free Dreamer Review: Traitor’s Moon (Nightrunner #3) by Lynn Flewelling

Rating: 5 stars out of 5     ★★★★★

Traitor's MoonSeregil and Alec have spent the last two years in self-imposed exile, far from their adopted homeland, Skala, and the bitter memories there. But their time of peace is shattered by a desperate summons from Queen Idrilain, asking them to aid her daughter on a mission to Aurenen, the very land from which Seregil was exiled in his youth.

Just like the rest of the series, “Traitor’s Moon” was absolutely amazing.

We start about two years after the end of part two. Seregil and Alec are now officially talimenos, an Aurenfaie term that means something like “lovers”. They’ve spent these past two years wandering the country, while Skala was fighting a brutal war against the Plenimar and its necromancers. Alec and Seregil are needed for a diplomatic mission to Aurenen.

I wouldn’t have thought it possible, but there’s even more in-depth world building happening in this book. I loved all the details and customs we learned about Aurenen. It’s such an intriguing place.

And there are dragons! Oh my god, there are cute little baby dragons! They’r called Fingerlings, because they’re about the size of a finger. I love dragons and I love this concept of dragons. They aren’t born as sentient beings. It takes a long time for them to become sentient animals, capable of speech and thought. They can get absolutely huge. But the huge ones aren’t the ones you need to fear. It’s the middle sized ones. The teenies, not yet self-aware, but very strong and poisonous. I really, really hope we’ll get to read more about those dragons in the future. They’re awesome.

Even though Alec and Seregil are now a couple, the romance is kept way low-key. In fact, when they don’t refer to each other as “tali” (“beloved” or something like that – can be used between friends and family as well), they still call each other “friend”. There’s absolutely no on-page sex. It’s mostly just holding hands and the rest is implied. Personally, I absolutely love the very low-key romance and it’s one of the things that keeps me hooked on the entire series. Lynn Flewelling doesn’t need to make her romance explicit for me to feel the love between Seregil and Alec. It’s obvious how much they love each other and it’s absolutely beautiful.

Once again, there’s lots of intrigue going on. There are secrets to uncover, murderers to find, allies to win, and past secrets that keep surfacing at the most inconvenient moments. We finally learn more of Seregil’s past and why he was exiled. I loved the sheer amount of politics in this book. I felt like I was really getting into the heart of the scheming. It was intriguing.

It’s hard to believe, but I think “Traitor’s Moon” might be even better than the first two parts. I’m starting to feel as if this series just keeps getting better and better with every book. I can’t wait to get my hands on the next book. I might even read “Glimpses”, a collection of short stories set in the Nightrunner universe, even though I’m usually not very fond of short stories.

Cover: Once again, I really like the 90s charm of this cover. It fits perfectly with the other covers.

Sales Link:  Amazon

Series: Part 3 of the Nightrunner series

Book Details:

Kindle Edition, 561 pages
Published December 23rd 2009 by Spectra (first published July 6th 1999)
Original TitleTraitor’s Moon
ASINB0031W1DZA
Edition LanguageEnglish
SeriesNightrunner #3
CharactersAlec í Amasa of Kerry, Seregil í Korit Solun Meringil Bôkthersa
Literary AwardsGaylactic Spectrum Award Nominee for Best Novel (2000

Series: Nightrunner (books 1,2 and 3 are linked to Free Dreamer’s reviews)

A VVivacious Review: Einstein’s Peep Show by Josephine Myles

Rating: 5 out of 5 Stars                                  ★★★★★
 
Einstein's Peep ShowNathan is a gay cam model which basically means he does solo sex acts for money to pay for his education. But when his highest tipper wants a private show with Nathan aka Einstein blowing another human being, Nathan is in a bit of a fix.
 
Rory is Nathan’s next door neighbour and when Nathan propositions him, he agrees because, who can turn down a blow job. But before he knows it things get out of control and turns out he might be in a real danger of losing his heart if only, Nathan would return his feelings…
 
This is the most charming romance I have ever read. These two were just so cute they had me going aww… and between that and the humour, I had a big smile slapped on my face for the entirety of the book and that is truly saying something because Rory had me giggling by the end of the first paragraph and the smile on my face never dimmed from there on out.
 
Nathan is this adorable geek who takes everything literally, so he can be a bit dense at times and a little too sensitive at the others. But he has had his heart squashed in a previous relationship and doesn’t want to suffer from another hormonal imbalance (if you are unfamiliar by the term, you might refer to it by the name of ‘love’).
 
Rory is this adorable (yes he is adorable too, you can get why this book is so charmingly funny and cute and romantic!!) guy who made me smile throughout this book, with his actions and words. He is such a nice guy, I loved the way he was open to talking and how he was always smiling and also how he was always trying to get Nathan out of his shell, and trying to make him really enjoy life.
 
Nathan and Rory together were oh so cute and just fit so well. And this really geeky quote from the book sums them up pretty well –
 
“Rory’s legs and arms were wrapped tight around him, pulling him inside, like the two of them were no longer separate integers. Like they’d been added together to make the most perfect prime number. Indivisible by anything but themselves.”
 
This book is perfect in length; it is a complete story and covers all the bases. What I loved was how this story imparts the true essence of Nathan and Rory just through their words and actions; I mean I loved how the plot had them in these adorable yet sexy situations and how they were trying to navigate this quagmire of a situation with their hearts intact, but failed… quite horribly.
 
If I could put a big arrow with the words READ THIS next to this book, I would. It’s short, it’s sweet, it will make you fall in love with the characters, it will make you laugh and in the end will still be a very satisfying read. Josephine Myles has hit a home run with this one.
 
Cover Art by Lou Harper. I think the cover is really cute (I am falling abysmally short of adjectives with this book), even though Nathan probably might not smile so much, but then he totally would if Rory was making him smile. I think the cover about covers up the content of this book.

Sales Links:   Amazon | Buy It Here

Book Details:
Kindle Edition, 90 pages
Expected publication: February 23rd 2016
ASINB01BLTEQ8K
Edition LanguageEnglish