Category: M/M Contemporary Fiction

A MelanieM Audio Review: Red, White & Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston and Ramón de Ocampo (Narrator)

Rating: 5 stars out of 5

A big-hearted romantic comedy in which First Son Alex falls in love with Prince Henry of Wales after an incident of international proportions forces them to pretend to be best friends…

First Son Alex Claremont-Diaz is the closest thing to a prince this side of the Atlantic. With his intrepid sister and the Veep’s genius granddaughter, they’re the White House Trio, a beautiful millennial marketing strategy for his mother, President Ellen Claremont. International socialite duties do have downsides—namely, when photos of a confrontation with his longtime nemesis Prince Henry at a royal wedding leak to the tabloids and threaten American/British relations.

The plan for damage control: staging a fake friendship between the First Son and the Prince. Alex is busy enough handling his mother’s bloodthirsty opponents and his own political ambitions without an uptight royal slowing him down. But beneath Henry’s Prince Charming veneer, there’s a soft-hearted eccentric with a dry sense of humor and more than one ghost haunting him.

As President Claremont kicks off her reelection bid, Alex finds himself hurtling into a secret relationship with Henry that could derail the campaign and upend two nations. And Henry throws everything into question for Alex, an impulsive, charming guy who thought he knew everything: What is worth the sacrifice? How do you do all the good you can do? And, most importantly, how will history remember you?

It was through another book recommendation that allowed me to find the perfect romance story and what I regard as an audio treasure,Red, White & Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston and Ramón de Ocampo (Narrator).  The only thing that could have made this even more splendid?  Finding out that the author,Casey McQuiston, had an entire back library to stories to dive into.  Alas, this is the author’s only published work.  But it’s such a gift that I immediately went out and also bought the ebook too.  Perhaps I’ll even see about a trifecta if a paperback version is available.  That’s how over the moon I am about this story.

I dunno.  I think that cover ought to glow or something just to give off a hint as to what awaits readers inside.  It wouldn’t be amiss as I feel as though Casey McQuiston has written the perfect contemporary romance story and Ramón de Ocampo has, in every way possible, given voice to it.

It’s her incredibly moving story, a straightforward narrative of two young men and their complicated path towards a relationship and love, but the actual novel format, which helps elevate the story into something that elevates it,  is interspersed with texts and emails, both funny and poignant, sometimes both, with the odd late hour phone call thrown in for good measure.  Alex and Henry use everything from emojis to moving literary quotes to relate moods and send deep love (as the relationship progresses).  And the structure immediately connects the reader into the “now” of the moment and the heart of whatever both men are feeling, alone and with each other.

The story works from the beginning to introduce us to these characters and yes, the entire cast of this story, all of whom are finely crafted, multilayered, and so memorable that I’m smiling now just thinking about them all. On both sides of the Atlantic.  Because while this tale is all about the romance and relationship of US first son Alex Claremont-Diaz and  HRH Prince Henry of Wales, it’s also about the people who support them (their sisters and friends like June, Nora and Pez, the people who protect them, and even  parents like the Senator and the President and more).  It’s also about service to one’s country, and about hope, and making the world a better place. And yes, total deep heart to heart love.

This story had me laughing, crying a box of tissues worth of tears, and then back to the puddle of heartwarming, hold this book tight, love affirming, hope filled, reader goo. When they put out that question “What books would you take to a deserted island?”, I now can answer firmly that Red, White & Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston is right there in the top 5, maybe top three.   If I can bring a narrator along then Ramón de Ocampo is coming too.

Because he may be a new favorite as well.  He swings effortlessly between accents, English, American, Hispanic….no problem.  And different people within those accents.  Again with ease. I didn’t want to stop listening…take the dogs out?  The story kept going.  Listened through dinner, lunch, even breakfast.  It was hard even to go to sleep until I had finished it.  It was and is perfection.  I really feel any words are almost inadequate to describe how beautifully written, how   gorgeous a story, how memorable a love story you will find within these pages.

And what a splendid job Ramón de Ocampo does with the author’s tale.

This will be in my Best of 2019 this year.  Yes, I highly recommend it in both ebook and audio.  Get both.

Cover art is cute, but honestly nothing on the cover will live up to what is inside.

Audio Sales Links:  Amazon | Audible

Audio Details:

Listening Length: 12 hours and 15 minutes

Audiobook
Published May 14th 2019 by Macmillan Audio
Original Title Red, White & Royal Blue
Edition Language English

A Chaos Moondrawn Review: Intoxicating (Elite Protection Services #1) by Onley James

Rating: 4.25 stars out of 5

I like my erotic romances with some depth and this fit the bill. There are many triggers in this book so please pay attention to the tags: past and present abuse, off page rape, self harm, flashbacks, alcohol, drugs, and suicide attempts. Of course, this all means the hurt/comfort trope is quite strong. Wyatt is full of pain from parents who don’t know what love means; he is acting out recklessly in his hopelessness. Lincoln is hired by Wyatt’s father as a babysitter for him during the Senate reelection campaign.

Much of this story takes place in a fish bowl of forced proximity. The attraction is immediate for both of them and while a misunderstanding keeps them apart for a little while, once that is gone there is no stopping the lust from boiling over, even if it all seems like a horrible idea, bound for heartbreak all around. As an erotic romance, the sex scenes are plentiful and smoking hot if light Daddy play is your thing. My heart hurt for both of them pretty quickly. Linc’s usual scenes and after care haven’t prepared him for actually caring for a boy of his own. He is in denial about his PTSD from the service and glosses over his own childhood abuse. Wyatt’s never had a man care for him at all, in any capacity. This is completely dysfunctional, but at least Linc understands that. Linc is an intimate witness to Wyatt’s life without his consent; it is Linc’s choice to share his life with Wyatt in return. With this dynamic, I wonder if anyone who showed Wyatt affection would have sufficed. Still, the moment that it becomes less about play and more about making love, the sex is real including the fear, communication, and humor.

The pacing is fast due to the feeling of racing against the clock. This has an expiration date, not just because of the senator’s campaign, but because this bubble is not sustainable. There are thankfully some interesting supporting characters involved: Linc’s boss and former service buddy Jackson, Graciela the housekeeper, Charlemagne or Charlie as Wyatt’s best friend, and Wyatt’s grandmother Violet. Charlie has the largest, much needed role as support for Wyatt when he can’t support himself. Some might criticize her for not doing more, but I think she did what she could whilst not humiliating and outing Wyatt against his will. When he makes the choice to change his circumstances, she protects them all. I admit Linc and his sister’s circumstances make no sense to me: caring for someone who hurt, neglected and abandoned them over someone Linc is falling in love with seems like a fake box to put him in. Neither does Wyatt’s situation make a lot of sense: if at 22, Wyatt is so abused and mentally screwed up that he can’t get out of the situation with his father, then he is not fit to be anyone’s partner. There are two scenes where Wyatt shows he can be supportive of Linc also–enough to give me some hope. With all the angst I had to wade through, I would have liked to see the epilogue expanded to show more of the happiness a romance brings to the table. Their kinks and childhood traumas match enough for them to bond, but I do wish there had been a bit more as to why they would work as a couple in real world circumstances for a more believable HEA.

The cover design is by We Got You Covered Book Design. This doesn’t have anything to do with the story. This model is a bit more built than I pictured Wyatt and less built than I pictured Linc. The tagline makes this seem more about discipline or BDSM, which doesn’t match the flavor of this book at all.

Sales Links: Amazon | Universal Link 

Book Details:

ebook
Published July 12th 2019 (first published July 8th 2019)
Original Title Intoxicating
Edition Language English
Series Elite Protection Services #1

A MelanieM Review: Stand In Place by Mary Calmes

Rating: 4.5 stars out of 5

One summer won’t be enough….

Kaenon Geary was done fighting the small minds in his sleepy Texas town when he made his escape and never looked back. But now, for the first time in more than a decade, he’s returned to Braxton to spend the summer with his beloved grandmother—her final summer—and no longer recognizes the home he’d left behind all those years ago.

Everything has changed.

Everything but the man he’s never stopped wanting.

Brody Scott was the local football hero who became a gridiron champ, but he retired from the fast lane to forge a new life as the Chief Constable of Braxton. He longs to put down roots in the community he is now sworn to protect. Though he’s not at all sure he can protect his heart from the quiet, earnest boy he once knew. The boy who has come back a man.

Starting something would be a mistake. Kaenon plans to fly away at summer’s end, but his love is something Brody desperately wants to have…and to keep. Their days together are numbered. Unless some simple hometown magic can make all the right things bloom and show them the true definition of love.

Stand In Place by Mary Calmes is a sort of fantastical mix of romance, forgiveness, family, and love.   Of all sorts.  Familial, friends, houses, gardens, the land they stand on, and of course, romantic love.  All lightly laced through with the aromas and touch of the mystical and magic.  Had that Practical Magic sort of feel about it….sans the murder mystery of course!

It starts with a phone call to Kaenon Geary from his beloved grandmother, asking him to come spring her from the hospital in his home town of Braxton, Texas.    It’s a phone call he can’t and won’t say no to.  Even though the town is a place he has nothing but bad memories and swore he wouldn’t return.  But it’s his grandmother and there’s nothing he won’t do for her.

The setup here is both heartbreaking and life affirming.  It’s about a journey that both looks back, inward,  and, eventually forward.  And it’s all centered in Kaelen who returns to the family, school kids, town who treated him so horrifically when he came out as gay,  All excerpt for his coach, two best friends and his grandparents and Aunt Peg who he went to live with when his parents kicked him out.

The setup is enough to rend one’s heart.  The impending loss of the last person he considers family, the return to the town who beat him for being his true self, and finally having to deal with all the memories and people Kaenon thought were deeply buried in the past.

Then come the gardens, the fireflies, and the magic.

All of which Calmes swirls around her characters like a witch with a wand.  A narrative one at that.

Kaeon is another one of the author’s golden boys she does so well, here given a glow imbued by a land that missed him so.  I believe in that, totally.    Just as I did in the romance between Kaenon and Brody Scott.   And the forgiveness that followed.  Character by character.

Too soon?  Too much forgiveness?  Others will admittedly hate that Kaenon forgave  so easily perhaps , but within this setting and context. I think the author made her case.

Did I want more?  Yes.  Of Aunt Peg, their relationship, the town, even more of Brody and Kaenon but I’m glad it ended where it did.  I didn’t need it to go past the summer and the vibrant return of the garden.  I was content to leave all three right where they were.  In that small house, facing the garden, savoring the summer night and the magic in the air.

And yes, I highly recommend this story.

Cover art: Reese Dante.  Love that cover, perfect for this story.

Sales Links:  Amazon |

Book Details;

Kindle Edition, 311 pages
Published July 17th 2019
ASINB07VCM4QK1
Edition Language English

A MelanieM Review: The Hate You Drink by NR Walker

Rating: 4 stars out of 5

Erik Keston, son of the Keston Real Estate empire, knows what it takes to be successful. Despite his inherent wealth, he holds his own. He works hard, he’s grounded, he’s brilliant. He’s also secretly in love with his best friend.

Monroe Wellman lost his parents three years ago and never grieved, never recovered. Inheriting the family company and wealth means nothing, and his spiral of self-destruction is widespread and spectacular. Dubbed Sydney’s bad boy, he spends more days drunk than sober, and the only person who’s stuck by him through it all is his best mate.

But when Monroe hits rock bottom, Erik gives him an ultimatum, and his entire world comes to a grinding halt. It’s not until the haze lifts that Monroe can truly see what he’s been searching for was never in the bottom of a bottle. It’s been by his side all along.

An 80,000-word friends-to-lovers story about fighting the demons within and trusting in the love that takes its place.

“Because when all you drink is hate, that’s all there is inside you.”

I really wish I could put down two ratings for this story, one for NR Walker’s superb portrait of an addict hitting bottom, and then going through rehabilitation and  reintegration into his relationships.  The other rating?  That would be for the romance.

The Hate You Drink by NR Walker is a tale of two addictions and the love of two men.  Both incredibly wealthy, longtime friends as were their families who live nearby each other. The death of Monroe Wellman’s parents shatters his life and sends him spiraling downward, the vehicle of his destruction alcohol.  Not that he recognizes just out of control  his drinking or his life has gotten.  Why?  Because his best friend is there, rescuing him, enabling him in his actions.  That would be Erik Keston, richer, taller, and hopelessly and secretly in love with Monroe.  His own personal addiction.

NR Walker brings us into the story at the point where Monroe is hitting bottom.  So everything good about his life, Erik, and his previous relationship and past childhood and upbringing is in the past.  All we see is the addiction, the lies and excuses and the effects it’s having on the people around him as well as Monroe.    It’s ugly, gritty, and authentic.  The pain Monroe is inflicting on everyone including Erik as well as himself is deep and widespread, although he blithely ignores it.

As it is with every addict, the story is all about Monroe.  What it will take to shake him up enough to get the help he so desperately requires, the acceptance that he is an addict, an alcoholic, and his long rehabilitation.  That’s most of the story.  That’s really this story.  And it’s a heartrending and disturbing one to read, especially if you know someone who is an alcoholic.  Because this will all strike you again as so very, very sad and true to life. The characters are true to life, layered and believable. This part of the story rates a 5 star rating.

Less successful for me is the romance here.  Erik has always loved Monroe, he is Erik’s personal addiction.  He, in fact, loses himself in taking care of Monroe during the worst of Monroe’s downward spiral.  We are told over and over that Monroe completes Erik, that prior to his parent’s death, Monroe was different.  That he took care of Erik, etc.  But we never get “glimpses” into that past relationship, into what made Erik love “that” Monroe.  The Monroe we see is the addicted, self centered, selfish alcoholic.  Even in rehab, you don’t quite see enough of that other Monroe to get the chemistry that should make this unique and soulmate sort of relationship work. So for me, the romance element is a 3 star or less.

However, the majority of this novel is so well written, so well researched and emotional, that it overpowers the lackluster romance and makes The Hate You Drink by NR Walker an impactful story and one I definitely recommend to readers.

Cover art works so well for the theme of the story and character.

Sales Links: Amazon

Book Details:

Kindle Edition, 1st edition, 295 pages
Published May 21st 2019
ASIN B07S5BVCWX
Edition Language English