Category: M/M Book Reviews

Review: Perfect Gifts (A Christmas Railers Novel) by R.J. Scott and V. L. Locey

Rating: 5🌈

The 12th story in the fantastic Harrisburg Railers series, Perfect Gifts is a heartwarming holiday tale of love in all its permutations. Couples, family, sibling, and deep friendship. Various relationships dynamics are featured here to a emotional, heartfelt display of love.

Ten and Jared are startled when their young daughter, Lottie, announces she wants a brother. Both had quietly been thinking of adding to their family but this prompts a immediate discussion and decision to foster and adopt.

Perfect Gifts is the story of what follows. The process, the anxiety of waiting for the call, and the stress and doubts when it happens.

The authors have created a holiday story that’s one for all seasons. When two boys , abused by some of the very people who should have been keeping them safe, come to find their forever home. It’s grounded in the older boy’s mistrust and pain, the younger brother’s hope and joy.

The characters are real , the elements believable, and the events that occur both heartbreaking and emotional.

A side storyline that involves a teammate and his brother is also a element that engages your heart with its high level of angst and anxiety for those who are part of this thread. It will be carried over into the next Railers book.

My only tiny issue is that I wish the ending had been longer. Not that it needs to be but I wanted more time with the new family. I was so connected to them every step as they formed a new family group that I really didn’t want to leave them there yet.

I hope to see more of them in future stories.

I’m highly recommending Perfect Gifts as a perfect holiday story.

https://www.goodreads.com › showRJ Scott – Perfect Gifts

Description:

Family comes first in all things. Whatever the cost.

Ten had always heard the saying ‘Out of the mouth of babes,’ but he’d not expected it to hit home as it had. After a comment from their daughter, Ten and Jared find themselves pondering an addition to the family. Moving into the adoption process is nerve-wracking and riddled with anxiety—kind of like how the Railers have been playing of late. Bringing two young men into their homes and hearts isn’t going to be a smooth ride. But with patience, humor, and love, the bumpy road might just be a little easier to travel.

Expanding their small family was always in the cards, but no one could have foreseen the process clashing with the worst ever start to a Railers season. A string of losses, a vital player missing from the defense, a captain in the emergency room, and winning a single game seems impossible, let alone getting the team to the playoffs. Faced with hard decisions, Jared refuses to take his work home, but it’s difficult when your husband is at the cutting edge of the losing streak. His focus fractures when one of the siblings they are matched with is frustrated, angry, and has a healthy dose of mistrust.

Jared and Ten’s parenting skills are tested, but they will do anything to make a place in their home the perfect gift for two children lost in the system.

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Unless it’s noted, all books reviewed have been purchased by the reviewer.

Review: Double Play (Hit and Run Book 3) by E.M. Lindsey

Rating: 5🌈

The finale story of the Hit and Run trilogy, Double Play brings back Herve Truffaut, the ex boyfriend of Pietro and ex best friend/employer of Thierry as a main character. Herve’s been a truly villainous person and his actions have caused enormous emotional pain as well as huge harm physically to both those men. He’s been hated and his narcissistic, self destructive personality gave no indication he would be redeemed.

Usually, that’s a iffy proposition for an author after making a character so reviled in previous stories. Most of the time it honestly doesn’t work.

Even here, Herve’s prior actions and the severity of the damage he’s caused to others is brought up often, as well as the fact most believe he’s not deserving of forgiveness.

That adds a rawness to the perspective and a darker side to the story and characters.

But Lindsey is able, by creating a fully balanced and multi layered being in Herve, to make us believe in his desire to change.

Now we get the complicated background, the abusive mother, the tormented adolescence, and the deep damage that left on him that helped create the monster he became. And is now trying to redeem.

The illnesses Herve suffers from , narcolepsy and cataplexy, are woven expertly into his life and character. I had little knowledge of both diseases until they were described in detail by Herve’s actions and emotional status throughout this story. The utter vulnerability and scary nature of these Illnesses are well portrayed.

Orion Coulter’s pain and situation derives from a different type of anguish and overwhelming sense of impending loss. That of a man he considers his brother due to ALS. His brother in law is dying and his grief is overwhelming him.

This sensitive issue is beautifully handled from many aspects. From that of the man himself who’s death is swiftly coming, his wife who is Orion’s sister, and then Orion who loves them both and does what his best friend wishes. He’s leaves for a vacation planned for the couple that they will never take.

Bring on the tissues. Because this is a heartbreaking aspect of this story.

The men, Orion and Herve , meet, talk, and begin a complicated realistic relationship, one with a man who’s prone to falling down, has a tight medication schedule and health requirements. Somehow, Lindsey makes it plausible, sexy, and hopeful.

As Orion is a MLB player on the same team as the other couples in the previous books, all those characters make important appearances here.

This is a tale of life, love, and redemption. It’s beautiful and tightly crafted.

I loved the ending and I’m highly recommending it. It’s the finest story, imo, of the trilogy.

Hit and Run Trilogy:

✓ Switch-Hitter #1

✓ Line Drive #2

✓ Double Play #3

Goodreadshttps://www.goodreads.com › showDouble Play (Hit and Run #3) by E.M. Lindsey

https://www.goodreads.com › seriesHit and Run Series by E.M. Lindsey

Description:

If self-destruction is an artform, then Hervé is a master artist.

After all, he’s perfected self-sabotage since he was young and full of promise.

He’s spent his life running from his past and pushing away anyone who might break down his walls, but it wasn’t until his body betrayed him that he realized just how lonely his present had become. Now he’s in the countryside, trying to figure out if anything is worth salvaging, and wondering if he’s the sort of man who will ever be worth a second chance.

Even when Orion Coulter—one of the star pitchers on the Denver Vikings—shows up in his little village like some sort of predestined knight on a white horse, Hervé doesn’t trust him. How can he when Orion is close to all the men Hervé hurt?

But Orion’s situation is more complicated than Hervé realized, full of pain and grief, looking for some kind of escape. And while Hervé knows that he hasn’t quite earned meeting the man of his dreams, Orion’s quiet voice, tender hands, and impossible promises has him wondering if maybe—just maybe—the universe is willing to give him the chance he doesn’t deserve.

Double Play is the final book of the Hit and Run MM baseball romance series. It features countryside kisses, grief, redemption, long walks, careful handling, and a painfully tender happily ever after.

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Unless it’s noted, all books reviewed have been purchased by the reviewer.

Review: The Love and the Anger by Rebecca Cohen

Rating: 5🌈

It’s the 10th anniversary of The Actor and the Earl , the novel of Lord Anthony Redbourn , first Earl of Crofton, and actor Sebastian Hewel . This story launched two series (The Crofton Chronicles and Modern Crofton) and the beginnings of a long, remarkable love story.

The Love and the Anger is set in the early Stuart era and one of the best, most well written aspects of this story is the manner in which the dangers and obstacles this couple faces daily is woven into the many storylines.

Here, Anthony Redbourn and Sebastian Hewel have had ten yrs together , with their committed relationship known only to a few in their inner circle of family and friends. Anthony is married to the marvelous Lady Sara, who’s love interests lie solely with her ladies maid. But Sebastian remains stubbornly single, a state that in that era makes for a strained, stressful situation where he’s a constant matrimonial target for ladies and their families, while also being an extremely attractive sexual mark for all sorts of men and women eager for his bed.

Cohen excels at conveying the vulnerability of Sebastian’s situation and the spectrum of emotions it pulls from both men who are powerless in their hidden love . Anger, acute jealousy, irritation, anxiety, it all comes into play as the price of maintaining social niceties with members of the Ton while trying to protect each other.

The reader is never able to forget that there’s a power imbalance built into their relationship simply due to Anthony’s status as a married Earl. It comes with a great deal of security and power that Sebastian can only access by association.

If the true nature of their long established relationship was known, then it’s death or the Gaol, and all would be lost. This fragility, where any measure of safety and security is fraught with the dangers of exposure, brings a layer of overlying sadness and a pinch of bitterness into each scene of love and happiness.

It’s realistic and heartfelt. It’s there in the language the men use, the care they take in every situation not to raise suspicions, and the idea they’ve been doing this for ten years and will continue on is emotionally exhausting at times.

That too shows up in Anthony’s fears and jealousy.

The focus of the story is William, Anthony’s son and heir from his first, brief marriage. William is 14, getting ready for a university he’s reluctant to attend, and he’s rebellious in all aspects.

His actions, again he’s such a believable young teenager of that era, as well as a mystery plot where young children of the Ton are taken to be exchanged for large sums of money, make this a tightly crafted, beautifully written novel.

Cohen remains true to her research, no mention of the word kidnapping, which she says in her Author’s Note , didn’t appear until 1680. The cast of characters, some familiar some new, are layered and well defined.

But it’s always the deep, complicated relationship between Anthony and Sebastian that’s key. It effectively threads through each other’s scenes and exposition, whether that character is physically present or not.

The Love and the Anger by Rebecca Cohen is one of the finest stories in The Crofton Chronicles. It’s a must read if you are a fan of both series and this author.

I do recommend you read each series in the order they are written to see the characters, the relationships develop.

Goodreadshttps://www.goodreads.com › showThe Love and the Anger by Rebecca Cohen

Description:

William, Viscount of Crofton, is missing, feared taken. Anthony Redbourn, 1st Earl of Crofton, is beside himself with worry and anger, and sets out with his lover, Sebastian Hewel, to find his fourteen year old son and bring him home.

Only William hasn’t been stolen away by a gang preying on the heirs of nobles. Enthralled by the theatre, he’s run away to join a troupe of travelling players, and all goes well until someone realises who he really is…

This novel is to mark ten years of my Crofton men. Anthony and Sebastian first appear in The Crofton Chronicles, and this story is set several years after Anthony, Earl of Crofton chronologically.

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Unless it’s noted, all books reviewed have been purchased by the reviewer.

Review: The Big Fix (Torus Intercession Book 5) by Mary Calmes

Rating: 4🌈

There’s no indication that The Big Fix is a series finale although it reads like one. The fifth book in Mary Calmes’ Torus Intercession series, it’s about the head of the agency, Jared Colter, and the Torus tech member, Owen Moss, who’s been a part of Jared’s life since he saved him as a child.

Jared has always been that person who’s been a bit of an enigma. The voice on the phone, the brief meeting in his office, and cringing mention by another Alphabet agency personnel who has been told to do exactly as Jared wants. He’s been the fearful respect looming in the background.

I think , for the series, he actually operates better that way.

Getting to know him here, while that makes him a believable, more realistic human being, takes away much of the image Calmes has built up for him over four books.

The Jared Colter here is 56. When all the action is required, the heightened danger that requires the senses honed by years of stealth, battle, and espionage, he’s rusty, slow to act, and clearly been behind a desk for a long time. Field work isn’t his friend, due to age and lack of practice.

Realistic? Yes. It certainly makes him relatable, especially since he comes across as spectacularly clueless in his interpersonal relationships.

All of which makes him a businessman removed from the day to day reality of his field agents. It just doesn’t mesh with the character as he’s been portrayed over the previous stories.

This disconnect continues with his behavior towards Owen Moss. Owen, 32, has a well known crush/love for his boss that everyone sees but Jared. They even live together. But Jared treats Owen like someone under his guardianship rather than an employee or adult.

Owen’s personality and their relationship comes across as parental too . The arguments less that of a 32 year old but someone younger.

Their relationship aside, along with the odd mistakes made, given their history and professionalism, there’s a lot of action, foreign scenery, foreign governments and law enforcement to ignore, as well as familiar characters from other Mary Calmes novels that arrive to help out Jared on his rescue mission.

There’s Darius Hawthorne from Late in the Day, Dante Cerreto from Again, US Marshals Sam Kage and Ian Doyle from the Marshals series. George Hunt and other names pop in too. I did enjoy my time spent with those wonderful people and mention of their partners and home life.

But as the story belongs to Jared and Owen, that aspect dragged. Not the entertaining rush to rescue (with torture scenes fyi) but their actual time together. That felt less believable and grounded.

So from just a pure rush of adrenaline shootout/blow um up storylines that I enjoyed to the less impactful main characters and relationship, I liked The Big Fix but it’s not a favorite in the series.

If you’re a fan of Mary Calmes, the series, then this book is definitely in your wheelhouse. For others, The Big Fix with it’s multiple storylines, characters that you need to have their novels read to understand, and lack of continuity in places, might be more complicated and less fun than anticipated. You decide.

Torus Intercession series:

✓ No Quick Fix #1

✓ In a Fix #2

✓ Fix It Up #3

✓ The Fix Is In #4

✓ The Big Fix #5

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Unless it’s noted, all books reviewed have been purchased by the reviewer.

Goodreadshttps://www.goodreads.com › showThe Big Fix (Torus Intercession #5) by Mary Calmes

Description:

Philanthropist. Humanitarian. Soldier. Spy.

Jared Colter, the head of Torus Intercession, has a secret life he left behind, one that only his closest confidants know about. Normally, the past keeps its secrets, but not this time. Old ghosts come calling to the very doorstep of his new life, when Owen Moss, the person closest to him, goes missing. A carrot left dangling to lure Jared out and into the hands of an unknown enemy.

Owen Moss was once a scared, orphaned boy saved by Jared, but he’s no longer a child even if Jared is having trouble seeing him that way. He’s thirty-two now, in love with Jared, and as Jared’s obliviousness keeps butting up against Owen’s desire, the tension between them keeps escalating. Something has to give, and soon.

With a bounty on his head, Jared races through the brutal underworld of Southeast Asia, in search of Owen. It’s a maze of treachery and murder, where one false move means death. The answer is tied to the man Jared used to be, taking him into the heart of the lion’s den, where he’s forced to face the darkest questions about himself to save the man he loves.

Review: The Real Kaimana (A Snowed Inn Romance) by Xenia Melzer

Rating: 5 🌈

The Real Kaimana by Xenia Melzer is a must holiday read. It’s a falling movie snowflake, a much needed hug, and that sexy fireplace burning ever so brightly in the cabin of your dreams. It’s the story that leaves you smiling, full of love and warmth at the thought of this couple and their happily ever after.

It’s low on angst, right on target with the balance between serious discussions about subjects such as body positivity, acceptance of one’s sexuality, and an emotional openness to life’s choices and new beginnings.

Melzer is a new author for me and I believe this is her first LGBTGIA story. I need to seek out what else this author has written because this is an amazing story.

The characters sing of life and joy while always staying grounded in a realistic foundation where families are capable of approving a son’s choices about his sexuality or career, and positivity about self image has no age restrictions or body types.

Travelogue blogger Quirin Brukmiller and businessman Kaimana Tilo will capture your heart from the start. They are so beautifully crafted, multidimensional personalities that I was swept into their lives and developing relationship and never stopped until the end.

I laughed with joy, stumbling along with them through all their discoveries and talks . And left them , far too soon, with their HEA.

I’m absolutely recommending The Real Kaimana (A Snowed Inn Romance) by Xenia Melzer and this collection. What a fantastic way to get into your holiday spirit!

Goodreadshttps://www.goodreads.com › showThe Real Kaimana by Xenia Melzer

Description:

When a travel blogger with a serious love for color and a billionaire with the most gorgeous dark eyes serendipitously meet at a hotel in the Colorado mountains, could it be the start of a true holiday romance?


Quirin Brukmiller grumbles when he is told he must go into the snow and cold to write a travel report about The Retreat, aka The Rainbow Inn, an LGBTQ-friendly hotel high up in the mountains. After some gentle persuasion in the form of free clothing from his favorite company, he packs his bags and is now ready to brave the snow for the first time. At the hotel, he has the most perfect meet-cute ever to be written for a rom-com and chooses to make the best of this golden opportunity fate has given him.


Kaimana Tilo just sold his biotech company for several billion dollars and came out to his parents. Both decisions went down like lead balloons with his conservative, money-loving family. To get some distance, a clear head, and to have his first appearance as an out gay man, he takes a trip to a charming inn deep in the mountains of Colorado. Before he has a chance to check into his room, he meets the man of his dreams. For once, life is smiling down on him, and Kai has every intention of keeping the colorful man who practically landed in his lap at his side.


When an avalanche blocks the road to the hotel forcing them to stay together longer, it is just the last sign that what they have is bound to last forever.

All the books in the Snowed Inn collection are standalone stories and can be read in any order.

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Unless it’s noted, all books reviewed have been purchased by the reviewer

Snowed Inn story Collection:

All the books can be read as standalones and in any order and all are available to buy or pre-order

• RJ Scott – Stop the Wedding – https://books2read.com/StopTheWedding

• H.L Day – Five Night Stand – https://books2read.com/FiveNightStandHL

• V.L. Locey – Checking it Twice – https://books2read.com/CheckingItTwiceVL

• LC Chase – Breakfast Included – https://books2read.com/BreakfastIncludedLCC

• Xenia Melzer – The Real Kaimana – https://books2read.com/RealKaimanaXM

• Meredith Russell – Stuck With You- https://books2read.com/StuckWithYouMR

• Eli Easton – A Changeling Christmas – https://books2read.com/ChangelingChristmasE

Review: The Button Man by Davidson King

Rating: 4 .25🌈

Assassin and kid stories have turned into a favored theme of mine, whether it’s a movie or a book. There’s something about a unrepentant killer who, for whatever reason or circumstances, turns into a father/mother/parent figure to a young child.

The dynamics that develop between the pair are usually so fascinating depending upon the age and personalities that , other storylines excluded, it makes the novel on its own.

Duke Barton comes from a line of assassins known as The Button Men. He was never given a choice by either his grandfather or father, his future was always set to follow their ways.

Barton’s history is not given a huge amount of page time. Instead, the emotional components are pulled out from his past timeline when necessary and then it’s left to our imagination to fill in the rest.

For the subject matter The Button Man covers in its storylines, it’s surprisingly entertaining and low angst within the deadly plot and killer’s romance.

I sort of enjoyed it that way. Neither Barton, his father Cal, or Barton’s handler, Sparrow, are seen as sociopaths or psychopaths. But rather as people who were forced or fell into professions that involve killing people.

King is clearly having a wonderful time with dialogue, scenes that include dangerous situations and mobsters, as well as the usual high end technology.

People (not MCs) are tortured, lots of killing and bodies. But also a wonderful dynamic between an unusual father and his unsuspecting daughter.

While I could point out holes in the behavior of some of the professionals (as it seems to me) like loose security physically and electronically, the characters and storylines kept me connected and involved right to the end.

There’s no indication that King intends to carry this book further into a series but honestly? I could see it . I loved the characters and would love a revisit in the future.

Contemporary romance your thing with a element of humor, action, murder and family? The Button Man by Davidson King might just be the read you’re looking for.

I’m definitely recommending it.

Goodreadshttps://www.goodreads.com › showThe Button Man by Davidson King

Description:

A visit from Button Man means only one thing: someone wants you dead.

Duke is born into the world a hired killer. It’s his birthright—all he knows, all he thinks he’ll ever be. Then one fateful night, the unthinkable occurs and in the most tragic of moments, a promise is made. That promise is kept for almost fifteen years, until he comes face-to-face with a target he never expects and a future he never sees coming.

Kelly spends his days in a classroom, while his nights couldn’t be more different. Unbeknownst to those around him, their friendly neighborhood teacher is the handler for a hit man. For over a decade he has watched Button Man’s back from behind a computer screen. He is content living his double life, believing he will never cross paths with the dangerous assassin, but fate has a different plan.

When the past collides with the present, Duke and Kelly must prevent it from destroying the future. It’s not just their lives they need to think about—the entire world of a fourteen-year-old girl is about to spin on its axis. Dodging bullets and uncovering truths bring the two closer than they could have imagined. But lust takes a back seat to survival when enemies threaten to drown them both in blood. Can they navigate these twists and turns when death is lingering at every corner, or will they die trying?

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Unless it’s noted, all books reviewed have been purchased by the reviewer

Review: Charlie’s Doctor (Shadow Elite Book 1) by Jocelynn Drake

Rating: 4.5 🌈

Second chance at love along with lovers reunited are among my favorite tropes. I get both with a storyline that involves several long-time mysteries, stealthy mercenaries, explosions, many shootouts, and a extremely entertaining romance to boot.

It all starts with a mission in Buenos Aires , Argentina, with the former CIA, now mercenary team lead by Charlie Sands. They’re looking for leads on a missing famous artist for a friend. But soon their interests intersects with that of someone from Charlie’s past. The only man he’s ever loved and had to leave.

Drake has created two men who’s experiences in the time since they separated in Paris have seen profound changes in them personally and professionally.

Dr. Will Monroe, temporarily filling in for a friend in a poor clinic in the darker of districts in the city, hasn’t seen his former love in years. Then Charlie left him with an explanation that gutted him.

We follow the separate threads that ties Will to a past and present danger, and the group of men he’s reunited with.

Hint. It’s not a happy reunion. Realistically, it shouldn’t be with all the deep feelings and secrets still to be revealed. Plus the men are grown and changed since the initial romance. That’s real too.

I was kept throughly invested in the reignited romance, the mysteries, the investigations and the team dynamics.

It was a non-stop reading and the ending sets up the next character’s story while putting this couple’s relationship in very permanent happy status .

Charlie’s Doctor is a very entertaining, and solid story. I’m definitely recommending it to those who love action and suspense with their romance.

Shadow Elite series:

✓ Charlie’s Doctor #1

◦ Kairo’s Billionaire #2 – Dec 2, 2022

Goodreadshttps://www.goodreads.com › showCharlie’s Doctor (Shadow Elite #1) by Jocelynn Drake

Description:

A second chance to say ‘don’t let me go’.

When paintings for an artist who disappeared roughly fifty years ago suddenly surface, Charlie and his friends decide it might be worth looking into what really happened. Besides, who isn’t up for adventure and fun in Buenos Aires?

But things go horribly sideways when Charlie stumbles across Dr. William freaking Monroe—the only man to claim and then destroy Charlie’s heart.

Now they’re on the run, dodging bullets and digging for the truth. Charlie wants nothing to do with Will. It’s his heart that’s screaming for a second chance.

Is it too late to get past years of anger and misunderstandings to grab the love that still burns between them?

Charlie’s Doctor is the first full-length novel in the Shadow Elite mercenary series and features stubborn men with poor communication skills, second chances, meddling brothers, explosions, and love on the run in Argentina

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Unless it’s noted, all books reviewed have been purchased by the reviewer

Review: Chasing Shadows (Daemons of San DeLain Book 1) by M.A. Church

Rating: 3.5🌈

Chasing Shadows is the first book in M.A. Church’s new Daemons of San DeLain series. A paranormal romance, the theme and background of the central characters hints at a darker story than it turns out to be.

A physically abused child is saved from his father’s continuing brutality by a monster that’s hiding under his bed. One who announces to the child that he belongs to him.

Church could have gone so dark with that storyline but instead the monster turns out to be a guardian who acts as protector, friend, and nothing more until the boy ages. He’s been a unseen companion, a voice and glimpses of darkness under the bed.

It’s not until Austin’s an adult with a career as a successful paranormal romance author that events cause a meeting that brings them finally face to face.

Church’s universe for this series has many of the usual paranormal characters as well as the new shadow daemons the author’s created. I found so many aspects about them interesting, the use of shadows to travel. Portals. The fact that there’s gender differences in appearances. That puzzled me btw. Why automatically assume or assign gender to daemons? Why not make coloration differences according to age?

At any rate, Kage, the head of his Daemons clan, aka the Monster under the bed, just doesn’t come across as all that monstrous. Courtly, old. Just not the feared being he’s supposed to be across all paranormal species.

That’s a factor here all through the various storylines. None of the hunters, werewolves, dragons, seem especially threatening.

The promise the dark elements threaded through the description shows never arrives. Which is fine if you like your paranormal romance on the light side.

Chasing Shadows , for me, is a lighter styled romance. There’s fated mates but no kink or wild sex that you’d expect from a daemon who’s claiming his long awaited mate. The story has some mystery, some suspense but ,again nothing chilling or high anxiety.

The relationships, the danger, even the mating bond itself was more along the quick entertainment level then anything with deeper narrative expectations.

If that’s what you want in a paranormal romance, or even something you’re looking for right now, check out the beginning of this new series, Chasing Shadows (Daemons of San DeLain Book 1) by M.A. Church .

Daemons of San DeLain series:

Chasing Shadows #1

Goodreadshttps://www.goodreads.com › showChasing Shadows by M.A. Church

Description:

The monster: They say I am powerful. They say I am the darkness. They say I instill fear in the minds and hearts of many.

They’re right.

I am powerful. I am the darkness. I should be feared. Then I heard his cries and everything changed. Power can be tempered. There’s safety in the darkness. And the monster isn’t always the one under the bed.

Now only the heart and mind of one human interests me. He is mine. I wait, watching over him until the time is right to claim what belongs to me.

Austin: Do you believe there are monsters under the bed? I do. I don’t just believe; I know for a fact they exist. I’ve met one. Sort of. Okay, I haven’t actually seen the monster, I’ve only spoken to it.

Kind of hard to see much of anything when you’re hiding under the covers while waiting on your father to beat your ass. The monster saved me. Literally. He says I’m his, and he’s waiting for the right time to claim me.

Someone tell him to hurry the hell up.

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Unless it’s noted, all books reviewed have been purchased by the reviewer

Review: Breakfast Included (A Snowed Inn story) by L.A. Chase

Rating: 3.5🌈

Breakfast Included by L. A. Chase is another of the Snowed Inn holiday collection that shares a special weekend at a mountain resort called The Retreat and a avalanche as the dramatic event to launch 7 romances.

I enjoy seeing characters from the other stories gliding through each other’s romances, even if it’s just a mention.

Chase’s book has an unexpected reunion between friends who haven’t seen each other for 12 years. That’s when a passionate kiss , then a ghosting caused immense hurt when they were teenagers.

Now at a gay speed dating event held at The Retreat, composer Reno Pierce sees ex crush/friend Tate Boylan sitting across the table.

Like all the stories, it’s the avalanche that starts a conversation, reconciliation, and renews a shared passion for each other.

I enjoyed both characters. Oddly, I didn’t get as much depth from Tate Boylan as I did from the younger Reno Pierce as the one who was kissed and left. Reno’s still hurt by that years later, unable to move past it. Tate’s personality feels a bit less complicated but that could be contributed to the fact we have more “Reno” page time and history.

The dramatic element introduced near the end and Reno’s reaction felt less believable. As did Ricky, older brother to Reno’s, somewhat over the top response and immediate turnaround to the couple and events. Came off as contrived.

I enjoyed the story. It was sweet and romantic without leaving a long impression.

Amazon.comhttps://www.amazon.com › Breakfa…Breakfast Included – Kindle edition by Chase, L.C.. Romance Kindle eBooks …

Description:

What’s worse than being stranded at a mountain resort by an avalanche three days before Christmas? Being trapped with your teenage crush—who kissed you and ran away.

Reno Pierce spends all his time creating music in his studio, quite happily alone, but at the insistence of his rom-com-loving dad, he finds himself at a Colorado mountain resort speed dating event. His dad wants Reno to bring his ‘Mr. Right’ home for Christmas, but what he finds instead is his teenage crush. Twelve years ago, he’d been head-over-heels in love with his older brother’s best friend, Tate. His straight best friend. But everything changed one magical night, when Tate kissed him like his life depended on it—and then ran away.

Six months after a bad breakup, Tate Boylan is still feeling the damage done to his confidence. Thanks to his hopeless romantic sister, who booked him a quaint cabin at a mountain resort and insisted he ‘boost his morale’ with a night of speed dating at The Retreat, he’s feeling much better. Until he sits at a table across from his best friend’s younger brother. The one he’d fallen for as a teen, kissed at a party, and never saw again.

Now that an avalanche has cut the hotel off from the rest of the world, Tate might have a chance to prove to Reno that this time he won’t kiss and run.

All the books in the Snowed Inn collection are standalone stories and can be read in any order.

Snowed Inn story Collection:

All the books can be read as standalones and in any order and all are available to buy or pre-order

• RJ Scott – Stop the Wedding – https://books2read.com/StopTheWedding

• H.L Day – Five Night Stand – https://books2read.com/FiveNightStandHL

• V.L. Locey – Checking it Twice – https://books2read.com/CheckingItTwiceVL

• LC Chase – Breakfast Included – https://books2read.com/BreakfastIncludedLCC

• Xenia Melzer – The Real Kaimana – https://books2read.com/RealKaimanaXM

• Meredith Russell – Stuck With You- https://books2read.com/StuckWithYouMR

• Eli Easton – A Changeling Christmas – https://books2read.com/ChangelingChristmasE

Review: Ruins (Wings ‘N’ Wands Book 1) by A.J. Sherwood and Jocelynn Drake

Rating: 5🌈

Ruins marks the outstanding beginning of Wings ‘N’ Wands series by A.J. Sherwood and Jocelynn Drake. It’s a spin-off or sequel series to their Scales ‘N’ Spells saga about dragons and their mages.

The Ice Dragon clan was introduced in the first series so we already have (if you’re a fan or reader of those novels) a solid understanding of the characters and foundation of the Ice Dragons history going into Ruin.

But for those who don’t, the authors weave the tragic past , the devastating wars and loss into the storylines here. It’s so satisfying to see King Rodrigo and Ha Na, as well as others again.

However, it’s Dr Samuel Hunter, archeologist, searching for the long lost Tupã dragon clan and the neighboring Sousa Mage clan, who’s so easy to connect with. From a mage family where his twin brother is favored because of his magical abilities and Samuel isn’t taken as seriously because of a broken core, Samuel is someone we can identify with and feel for.

Troubling family dynamics aside, his personality is lively and engaging. Which makes Dimitri’s drive to have a relationship believable .

The authors include an ongoing investigation into the disappearance of the missing dragon and mage clans, the research for a solution to Samuel’s broken core, and an entire clan of Ice Dragons with mage mate drama.

It’s an engrossing story, full of adventure, dragon flight, romance, and poignant moments. I loved every bit of it. And I’m looking to see what shape the next story takes.

Wings ‘N’ Wands series:

Ruins #1

Buy Now or Read in KU

Description:

Samuel has one goal in life: fix his broken core.

What does he not want? A bossy, overprotective, possessive, teasing dragon sticking his nose in business that is not his.

Even if he is sexy. And supports Samuel on his quest to find the lost Sousa Mage Clan.

Utterly beside the point. He does not need a dragon boyfriend.

(Un)fortunately, Dimitri disagrees.

Tags:

Ice dragons, Brazil, fated mates, dragon shifters, not mpreg, found family, true acceptance, hurt/comfort, broken cores, lost clans, magical creatures, beware of stompers, fun with waterfalls, snowball fights in summer, ice dragons know how to stay cool, Dimitri licked him and now he’s his, overprotective and grumpy, calming cuddles, seriously Dimitri needs all the cuddles, booby traps, Sam was not trying to seduce Dimitri, it was the cuteness that snuck under Dimitri’s guard, communication, because miscommunication is the devil’s trope, Dimitri has a weakness for sassy intellects, who knew, Dimitri is a walking air conditioner, Sam approves

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Unless it’s noted, all books reviewed have been purchased by the reviewer.