Category: M/M Paranormal Fiction

An Alisa Review: Nosy Neighbors by Nina Schluntz

Rating:  4 stars out of 5

 

Julian is used to drama, seeing ghosts tends to do that to a person’s life, but when he falls for a man known as the neighborhood murderer–the dead help him uncover secrets no housewife could predict.

 

Moving into a suburban, middle class, stereotypical neighborhood was never on Julian’s to do list. When his identical twin brother inherits their Aunt’s house in such a place, then finds a good job, Julian reluctantly follows. He expected to feel isolated by being the only gay person on the block, okay, more likely the zip code, but a few nosy housewives eagerly inform him the neighbor across the street is gay, and punned, Mr. Creepersen, due to several murders that occurred in his basement five years ago.

 

This story sounded interesting and I couldn’t resist reading this.  Julian has been with his brother since forever but truly lives a lonely life.  Keeping his “gift” a secret and his general shy personality makes it hard for him to open up or get to know people.  Neil has quietly lived his life since his husband’s death but live with reminders all the time with how all those in the neighborhood treat him.

 

Neil lives with the invisible scars from his marriage and the fallout that he lives a quiet life not really allowing anyone in.  He opens up to Julian a bit but quickly makes assumptions of his feelings.  While Julian opens himself up to the ghosts in order to help Neil get some closure he also opens himself up to more pain and is trying to figure out how to navigate through it.

 

While I’m not quite as sympathetic towards Neil as I thought I would be I understood what happened to him and how that affects what he does now.  His insecurities almost push Julian away but Julian isn’t willing to just give up when he finally found the kind of relationship he has been looking for.  While I enjoyed this story I connected with Julian way more than I did with Neil.  They seem to be heading off into the future together which was nice but more of a conclusion for these two would have been nice.

 

The cover art by Melody Pond is nice and gives some good visuals from the story.

 

Sales Links: MLR Press | Amazon | B&N

 

Book Details:

ebook, 210 pages

Published: September 1, 2017 by MLR Press

Edition Language: English

 

Release Tour and Giveaway: Not Your Villain (Sidekick Squad #2) by C.B. Lee

Not Your Villain (Sidekick Squad #2) byC.B. Lee

Publisher: Duet, the Young Adult imprint of Interlude Press
Cover Design: CB Messer
Release Date: October 5, 2017

Purchase Links:

Interlude Press | Amazon |Barnes & Noble | Apple | Kobo | Smashwords | 

Book Depository | Indiebound  

 

 


SUMMARY

Bells Broussard thought he had it made when his superpowers manifested early. Being a shapeshifter is awesome. He can change his hair whenever he wants and, if putting on a binder for the day is too much, he’s got it covered. But that was before he became the country’s most wanted villain.

After discovering a massive cover-up by the Heroes’ League of Heroes, Bells and his friends Jess, Emma, and Abby set off on a secret mission to find the Resistance. Meanwhile, power-hungry former hero Captain Orion is on the loose with a dangerous serum that renders meta-humans powerless, and a new militarized robotic threat emerges.

Sometimes, to do a hero’s job, you need to be a villain.

SBN (Trade)  978-1-945053-25-2

ISBN (eBook)  978-1-945053-43-6

Pages:  320 (79,500 words)

Price:  $16.99 print/$6.99 multi-format eBook

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

C.B. Lee is a bisexual writer based in California. She is a first-generation Asian American and holds a BA in sociology and environmental science, which occasionally comes in handy in her chosen career, but not usually. Lee enjoys reading, hiking, rock climbing and other outdoor pursuits.

Not Your Sidekick (2016) was named a finalist for both the Lambda Literary Awards and the Bisexual Book Awards. Lee’s first novel, Seven Tears at High Tide (2015), was also a Bisexual Book Awards finalist. She is a Lambda Literary Emerging LGBTQ Voices Fellow.

Giveaway

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Release Blitz Tour for Bitten by Desire (Regent’s Park Pack #3) by Annabelle Jacobs (excerpt and giveaway)

 

Buy Links: Amazon US | Amazon UK
 
Length: 78,000 words approx.
 
Cover Design: Natasha Snow
 
Regent’s Park Pack Series
 
Bitten By Mistake (Book #1) Amazon US | Amazon UK
Bitten By Design (Book #2) Amazon US | Amazon UK
 
Blurb
 

Two lovers from rival packs. Have they come together only to be forced apart?


Alec Knight, a beta in the Regent’s Park pack, guards his heart carefully. Ghosts from his past keep him alone and angry, any hope of a relationship impossible while guilt from the pack wars still haunts him. With the anniversary drawing near, Alec needs a distraction.


As a lowly member of the Primrose Hill pack, Mark Appleton isn’t used to having his alpha’s attention. Lately he’s had more than his fair share, and not for the right reasons. Despite growing suspicions that all is not well, Mark tries hard to do better, but constant criticism leaves him desperate for a stress outlet.


Sex is a good way for shifters to let off steam, and while their packs attack each other with accusations and lies, Alec and Mark work out their frustrations in bed. Pillow talk and shared secrets lead to a closeness neither was expecting, but when pack relations reach an all-time low, any future for them seems out of the question.


If they want to be together, they’ll have to go against their alphas’ wishes—except Alec won’t and Mark can’t.

 

 

 
Excerpt

Mark’s scent might have been lost to him before, but standing this close to him, Alec had no trouble picking it out—a light citrusy undertone to the spicy edge he’d detected earlier with just a hint of the tequila working its way out of his system. Even with the alcohol, he smelled good.

Alec took a deep breath in, not bothering to be subtle about it. Might as well put the offer out there. He wasn’t in the mood for games tonight. Maybe he hadn’t consciously gone in there with the intent of hooking up with Mark, but he liked what he saw. Dark hair and blue-green eyes had always done it for him.

It was a bad idea; the worst one Alec had had in a while probably. But like it had done on the street outside, Mark’s scent stirred Alec’s interest, making his wolf perk up and take notice. He didn’t always get that with people he fucked. When it happened, it boded well for the night ahead.

And it was just sex, right? After Cam’s accusations, Alec couldn’t make relations between their packs any worse. Cam might disagree, but Alec needed to get all this tension out of his system if he was to be any use to his alpha over the next few days. And both he and his wolf had decided on Mark.

Author Bio

Annabelle Jacobs lives in the South West of England with three rowdy children, and two cats. An avid reader of fantasy herself for many years, Annabelle now spends her days writing her own stories. They’re usually either fantasy or paranormal fiction, because she loves building worlds filled with magical creatures, and creating stories full of action and adventure. Her characters may have a tough time of it—fighting enemies and adversity—but they always find love in the end.

Twitter ñ https://twitter.com/AJacobs_fiction
Website ñ www.annabellejacobs.com
Email ñ ajacobsfiction@gmail.com
Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/ajacobsfiction

Giveaway

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A Barb the Zany Old Lady Review: Hexslayer (Hexworld #3) by Jordan L. Hawk

Rating: 5 stars out of 5

As exceptional as others in this series, Hexslayer is the tale of Nick, a horse familiar who has no love lost for any witch and snubs his nose at the MWP—Ministry of Witch Police—even though one of the familiars who found his witch and works there is his brother, Rook (The 13th Hex).

For years, Nick has housed feral familiars in the tenement apartments above his bar, Caballus.  He’s made it his personal business to assist any and all familiars who do not want to be tied down to a witch and has even been operating an underground escape route for those who need to get out of the city.  No one knows of that except his employee Kyle, however.  He’d certainly never let on to Rook, who is now a “goody two shoes” in Nick’s book.

But when Nick meets Jamie MacDougal, MWP witch and former war hero, something clicks and he’s shocked to realize he may be looking at his own witch.  Refusing to believe it, and definitely not willing to act on it, he’s surprised to find that Jamie came back from the war with an artificial leg and that Jamie is not typical of any witch he’s ever met before.  In fact, the man is so sexy and so sweet that Nick decides to propose that he and Jamie form a temporary bond, to be separated by a hexbreaker after one month.  They will work together to solve the mystery of who is killing feral familiars in a ritualistic way and leaving the bodies surrounded by blood and symbols for all to see. 

What he doesn’t count on is falling in love.  And what Jamie doesn’t count on is finding out that someone close to him is involved in the nefarious plot to do away with familiars altogether. 

There’s mystery and intrigue, action and adventure, fighting and loving, and very definitely a happily ever after in store for these two men who seemed to be mismatched from the start, but in reality, they form the other half of each other’s soul. 

I highly recommend this story, and in fact this entire series, to lovers of mystery and romance.  If you love the author’s Whyborne & Griffin series, you are sure to love this one too.  This can be read as a standalone; however, there are repeating characters from previous books so reading the first ones in the series is recommended.   In any event, don’t hesitate to pick this story up. 

~~~~~

Cover art by Jordan L. Hawk features two men in the upper frame of the cover, the smaller one representing Jamie in the background, the larger, darker-skinned man in the forefront representing Nick, Jamie’s familiar and horse shifter.  The lower frame shows the shadow of a horse superimposed on a Hexworld map and linking this cover to others in the series.  Though somewhat dark, it is very attention-getting and perfectly portrays the theme of the story.

Sales Links:

Amazon | Amazon UK | Kobo | Smashwords|Nook | iBooks

Book Details:

Kindle Edition, 344 pages
Published October 6th 2017 by Jordan L. Hawk
ASINB075J6XQXR
Edition LanguageEnglish
SeriesHexworld #3

An Alisa Review: Good Things (Roguefalls #4) by April Kelley

Rating:  3 stars out of 5

 

Sometimes doing right by others means giving up on your own happiness and sometimes it’s just stubbornly resisting the best Fate has to offer.

 

Good things never happen in a continuous stream for Jalen Etters. He has a job he loves, a roof over his head, and all the food he could eat. He even flirts with a sexy little barista named Markie. When he finds himself hiding out from human soldiers on his construction job site, he thinks his good streak is over. Thankfully, Rico, a hawk shifter, is sent to save him, so the good streak is still intact. Then he finds out Rico is his mate but he’s in love with Markie. Maybe his good streak is over after all.

 

I was looking forward to this story and seeing these characters finally get their own story after seeing them in the last few.  Jalen has lived his life for his brothers forever and is willing to give up his own happiness for those he loves.  Markie and Rico have danced around each other for a long time and just as either of them are willing to make a move Jalen is thrown into the mix.

 

Jalen has trouble giving up control of everything and trying to figure out everything with his mates makes that even harder.  I hurt for Markie and Rico when Jalen just seemed to give up hope and wouldn’t respond to anything or anyone.  Markie really shows how he cares and is willing to push in order to break through the walls around Jalen’s heart and finally show his feelings towards Rico.  Rico seemed to think he had everything figured out but it didn’t mean they were all up to his way of thinking and I was happy to see them all finally get past the barriers in their way.

 

The cover art by Erin Dameron-Hill is nice and follows the pattern for the series.

 

Sales Links: Extasy Books | Amazon

 

Book Details:

ebook, 112 pages

Published: September 1, 2017 by Extasy Books

ISBN: 978-1-4874-1444-3

Edition Language: English

Series: Roguefalls #4

A MelanieM Review: Whitecott Manor by Emma Jane

Rating: 3 stars out of 5

Alistair Ellis is the proud gardener for beautiful fifteenth-century Whitecott Manor, in England’s West Country. His life changes forever following a gas explosion at the manor, in which his boss—and love of his life—dies. However, his boss hasn’t exactly gone for good and Alistair still finds himself involved in conversations with the deceased.

Circumstances improve when he meets Noah, the handsome dog groomer for the manor’s new owners. Although there are some issues: Noah is already engaged and Alistair suffers from cynophobia—an acute fear of dogs!

Whitecott Manor by Emma Jane is a prime example of a novel that has so many elements to it that they overwhelm the central romance and swamp the characters under a flood of narrative far too heavy for one book to carry.  Honestly, this could be a really adorable romance as it has all the makings.  It could also be a slight cosy mystery that could have been tilted into a murder/mystery story, could have been a suspense/policy tale (lots of that here) and then there’s the paranormal spooky element here with a ghostly ex-lover who hangs about almost the whole time.  And did I say there are dogs here too?  Cute dogs, big dogs….so a doggy tale as well.

It’s as if the author loves all those various genres and when it came to writing this story, couldn’t let go of any of them so she smashed them all together with the result that this story never really flies laden down with its heavy burden of too many themes and exposition.

If you cut everything away to just the romance of Alistair the gardener and Noah the groomer, it’s cute and the ending sweet and heartwarming.  Alistair has to learn to grieve, move on and into a new love.  Done and wonderful.  Even gets to love a pooch!  Perfect.

But there’s stuff about a brothel, and too many characters you couldn’t care less about, and even the ghost gets tiresome after a while.  You want to call for an exorcist and some pruning shears to weed away all the stuff keeping you from Noah, Alistair and the HEA.   I think the word I’m looking for is cumbersome.  Sigh.

So, yes, I really enjoyed parts of this novel.  But at 250 pages,  other parts felt every bit 400 pages long.  I kept thinking, why is Alistair not using his phone, making a vid and calling his beloved employer?  Oh, right because that would mean all those pages would be gone.  Some things just didn’t make any sense to me.  So I’m just not sure I’d recommend this one.  Not unless you’re an absolute fan of the author.

Cover art is glorious.  Love everything about it.  Perfection.

Sales Links:  NineStar Press | Amazon

Book Details:

ebook, 250 pages
Published September 11th 2017 by NineStar Press
ISBN139781947139831
Edition LanguageEnglish

An Alisa Review: Edward Unconditionally (Common Powers 3) by Lynn Lorenz

Rating:  3 stars out of 5

 

Edward is on a mission to save his grandmother by using his power. Jack is on a mission to never come out of the closet. It’ll take a dog named Winston to bring them together.

 

When Jack meets Edward at a traffic stop, his world is rocked—and not for the better. Edward is the gayest man he’s ever seen and Spring Lake is a small town just getting comfortable with its own new gay couple, Brian Russell and Rush Weston. Unlike Edward, Rush and Brian are big, strapping, manly men. But manly isn’t what turns Jack on. It’s Edward—everything about the younger man drives Jack wild with desire and the need to control Edward’s wild, impetuous spirit.

 

For Edward, his attraction to ‘bad boys’ has been his romantic downfall. His heart’s been broken so many times he’s lost count. When he meets Jack, Edward falls for the all-American by-the-book lawman, but finds his attempts rebuffed and his pride severely wounded. Jack’s straight, or at least says he is, but Edward knows that look in Jack’s eyes—he’s seen it before in other men. How can a man so right be so wrong?

 

Edward tempts Jack beyond anyone he’s ever met and his desire for Edward builds each time he encounters the younger man, until he can no longer deny it or himself. But Edward doesn’t want sex on the side, he wants forever. He wants the fairy tale.

 

Can Jack give Edward what he wants or will Jack’s fear of being ridiculed for his choice of a partner keep them from their happily ever after?

 

From their first meeting Jack and Edward’s relationship seems to be a comedy of errors.  Jack is embarrassed and then on top of that has to take Edward’s dog home.  They both push each other’s buttons, both the good and the bad, but have to learn a little about adapting too.

 

I didn’t quite connect with these characters as much as I did in the other books and felt that there was more to Jack’s backstory than what was told.  He continues to push Edward away and suddenly gives into his feelings to stand beside him and it just came out of the blue to me.

 

I did feel for Edward, he had been pushed away by his father and manipulated by his mother for most of his life and just as he is getting to know that one person who loves him no matter what he loses her.  But Olivia left a good base for Jack to finally latch on to.  I loved the support these two got from those around them and getting to see everyone from the previous books some more.

 

The cover art by Posh Gosh is great, I love the visual of Winston and continues the pattern for the series.

 

Sales Links: Pride Publishing | Amazon | B&N

 

Book Details:

ebook, 223 pages

Publication: 2nd edition, August 22, 2017 by Pride Publishing

ISBN: 978-1-78651-597-1

Edition Language: English

Series: Common Powers #3

An Alisa Review: Rush in the Dark (Common Powers 2) by Lynn Lorenz

Rating:  4 stars out of 5

 

Rush is so deep in the closet he can’t find the door, but meeting Brian might give him the courage to step out of it.

 

When Brian and Rush meet in a dark alley, sparks fly. The attraction is fast and hard, but Rush is a rancher with a reputation to uphold and Brian is out and open.

 

Both men have secrets, including the small powers they each have, and a relationship means they might have to share. It would require Rush coming out of his closet and putting his ranch and his friendships with the people around him at risk.

 

For Brian, it means putting his heart on the line for a man who’s afraid of being himself. He’s been down that road before and Brian won’t go back in the closet, not even for Rush.

 

Each time they’re together, Rush and Brian set the air around them on fire. As they move closer, both are still holding back, still unsure of each other. One of them will have to take the first step or this thing between them will flounder.

 

For Rush, it’ll take a huge step and a lot of trust to risk his entire life in the small Texas town of Spring Lake. And once he’s out, there’s no going back.

 

For Brian, his heart isn’t the only thing at risk. If he keeps seeing Rush, he knows he might just lose his life.

 

I enjoyed this story just as much as I did the first one in the series however this one really gave more time for the characters to work on building their relationship.  Brian has pretty much lived his life alone for years and meeting Rush makes him want to break his own rules.  Rush has never had anything other than one night stands but no matter what he does he can’t get Brian out of his head.

 

I loved how Brien was willing to hurt himself because he didn’t want to be hurt more later by Rush’s insecurities.  He continues to do his work and help Sammi find out some information about his past so that his friends can have the best chance to continue building their life.

 

Rush is constantly doing the wrong thing in regards to Brian and their relationship.  It takes a lot of soul searching for him to finally let his guard down enough to really let Brian into his life.  I could feel his father’s words and actions still hurting him even years after his death.

 

The cover art by Posh Gosh is nice and continues the pattern for the series.

 

Sales Links: Pride Publishing | Amazon | B&N

 

Book Details:

ebook, 189 pages

Publication: 2nd edition, July 11, 2017 by Pride Publishing

ISBN: 978-1-78651-584-1

Edition Language: English

Series: Common Powers #2