Category: M/M Paranormal Fiction

A MelanieM Review: A Place for Dreams by Deja Black

Rating:  2 stars out of 5

Raksha has arrived from Nepal, along with his people, to reclaim his mate, but Cole Brightside is a young man afraid of a past he doesn’t fully remember. The two have only connected in Cole’s dreams, where Raksha is both beast and man. Now, Raksha wants them together again in the real world.
Can Cole make it past his own fears to become the man Raksha needs him to be? Can Raksha accept who Cole has become?
Can they find a place for dreams?

A Place for Dreams by Deja Black is a story that has a neat promise, a yeti as one of the main characters and what could have been a sweet, lovely lovers reunited romance.  And it is for some of it, but it is also a confused tale where too much mythology gets squished together along with a back history that it turns garbled and the ending is just plain confusing.

I read it twice and still went ‘huh’ in places.

Cole is a well drawn character with a history that brings the mystery as well as the mythology (a voice in his head and nightmares from childhood).  Then the person from his dreams actually appears in front of him and I just didn’t buy into the story at all.  I love these books but the  author wasn’t able to pull me into their world enough to connect me to their relationship or myth building.  So it just didn’t work at all from there on out.

I liked the idea that Cole wasn’t just prepared to drop everything just because Raksha showed up and said he was someone else.  That alone made sense.  I wish most of the  rest of the story  had done the same.

Cover art has none of the mystical elements you would expect for this story.  I consider it a miss.

Sales Links: eXtasy Books |  Amazon

Book Details:

ebook, 69 pages
Published July 7th 2017 by Extasy Books
ISBN 1487412118 (ISBN13: 9781487412111)
Edition LanguageEnglish

Blog Tour for Death by Starlight by Alexis Duran (excerpt and giveaway)

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Title: Death By Starlight
Author: Alexis Duran
Series: Edge of Night #2
Release Date: July 19th 2017
Genre: Paranormal MM Romance/Fantasy

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In Betwixt and Between, Ian and Zeke fought a battle against the queen of the dark realm in order to be together. Now, just when they think they might settle into as normal a life as elves living among humans might be able to expect, a new enemy threatens to tear them apart. While Zeke helps the shaman Alistair in his hunt for an elusive mermaid, Ian is called to confront a wicked nymph preying on tourists along Seattle’s waterfront. Zeke and Ian soon discover that the defeated Queen Ysolde has spread her evil into the sea realms, and danger lurks beneath every wave. But it’s too late to stop an escalating series of confrontations that lead to disappearances, death and the possible end of light in this world.

As Ysolde plots revenge and a mysterious prince seeks to win Ian for himself, the ancient war between light and dark sweeps Ian and Zeke into its maelstrom of hate, testing their trust for each other to the utmost.

Purchase: Amazon US | Amazon UK | Loose ID

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EXCERPT

“Someone has to restore the balance between light and dark energy. I’m one of the last of my kind. I might be the only one who can do it.” Ian slid his hands off the table and rested them on his thighs. He expected derisive laughter from Zeke or a gentle clucking accompanied by a sad shake of the head. Sure, Ian Evers, nobody reporter for a gossip rag, half-breed elf, was going to save the world and fix what Ysolde spent centuries destroying.

Zeke’s face remained impassive, but a storm brewed in his eyes. “You’re not the last of the liosa. Others escaped.”

“I might as well be. They’re all gone, run off to hide out beyond…” Ian waved a hand in the air, signifying that remote world he sometimes glimpsed when they made love.

Glaring out the windows into their backyard, Zeke breathed deeply but said nothing. Ian continued.

“If I start with some miniscule adjustments, push back against the places the dark realm has encroached on this world, maybe some liosa will come out of hiding.”

“They won’t like you being with a svarta,” Zeke said.

“That’s their problem. I know I might never be buddies with other liosa, but we could use their help, right? If Ysolde is plotting to retake her throne like you say, and the svarta are behind her—”

“Only some of them. We don’t need anyone’s help.”

“Yes, we do. We never would’ve defeated Ysolde without Alistair’s and Cleona’s help.”

Zeke leaned forward, his gaze now focused intently on Ian. “We’re stronger now. We need to concentrate on solidifying our connection and making sure no one can break it.”

“You think someone could?” Ian asked. Surprised by the fear he saw lurking behind his lover’s composure, he instinctively put his hands on the table and reached for Zeke’s. Zeke allowed his hands to be held without reacting.

“You couldn’t track me in the dark realm,” Zeke said. “I’m afraid the same would be true if you ever go off into the realm of light. I’ll lose you.”

BOOK ONE

Title: Betwixt and Between
Release Date: June 29th 2015
Genre: Paranormal MM Romance, Fantasy

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Reporter Ian Evers, obsessed with magical creatures since childhood, never experiences satisfying proof that the magical realm actually exists until he falls into an entrapment spell set by a handsome but dangerous elf. Barely escaping with his soul intact, Ian is able to undo the hex, but he can’t escape the very real infatuation he’s developed for the fierce, alluring elf.

Ezekiel Stormshadow is a svarta, a dark elf who serves the queen of the dark realm. The realm of darkness needs the power of light to survive, and while hunting the last few magical beings on earth, Ezekiel discovers Ian, a light elf who’s unaware of his true nature and ripe for the plucking. Their brief encounter awakens a great hunger in Ezekiel, and he’s determined to feast on the light elf’s power and body before the queen intervenes and claims Ian for herself.

Ian knows only he can save Ezekiel from the grasp of the dark queen. Driven apart by the ancient imbalance between the dark and light realms, an evil queen starved for power, and their fear of each other, Ian and Ezekiel are relentlessly drawn together even though their union might destroy them both.

Find Betwixt and Between on Goodreads

Purchase: Amazon US | Amazon UK | Loose ID

GIVEAWAY: Win a $10 Amazon Gift Card

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About the Author

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Alexis Duran was born and raised in the Pacific Northwest. At the University of Oregon, her fascination with people and relationships led her to major in Sociology, but her main love has always been creative writing. She has worked in museums, in fashion, in finance and film production. Her favorite job so far was Administrative Assistant in a haunted Victorian Mansion. She’s had several short stories published in the mystery, horror and literary genres, and one contemporary fantasy novel. Her fiction has won several awards including the Rupert Hughes Award from the Maui Writers Conference. She’s thrilled to enter the realm of erotic romance with the publication of her novels Touch of Salar, Blood of Salar and To Catch A Threeve. She’s is currently working on the next in the Masters and Mages series and several other m/m erotic novellas.

Links: Website | Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads | Amazon | Pinterest

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Release Blitz for Stormy Nights by Jules Jones & Storm Duffy (giveaway)

Title:  Stormy Nights

Author: Jules Jones, Storm Duffy

Publisher:  NineStar Press

Release Date: 7/24/17

Heat Level: 5 – Erotica

Pairing: Male/Male

Length: 45000

Genre: Contemporary, Paranormal, contemporary, paranormal, fantasy, mermen, fae, D/s, leather underwear fetish, older men, public sex, cottaging, menage

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Synopsis

Sex and love, lies and truth, shades in between. Happy endings and might-have-beens. Nine tales of these things between men.

Blurbs

Gone Fishing

Mike’s doctor prescribed a few weeks on a lonely beach as a rest cure for a weary mind. But even if the beach is empty, the sea holds more than fish.

Naked

Just how far will a man go to understand his partner’s desires? Will he bare all – including all of his skin to the razor blade?

One Size Fits All

Hugh’s everything that Gavin could ask for in a lover. Everything, apart from his taste in underwear. It’s boring. So Gavin decides to rummage through Hugh’s underwear drawer—and what he finds is so interesting that he tries it out for size.

The Fraudster

A forensic accountant’s job offer to a computer fraudster fresh from prison is a second chance for both.

A Sparrow Flies Through

High tech cottaging provides a few moments of light and warmth on a dark cold night.

If I Offered Thee a Bargain

Just one night of your life in exchange for seven years of love. Would you pay the price?
Jack never dreamed that a reluctant trip back to his home town would thrust him into the world of the sidhe. He finds that the legends are true, but the sidhe have changed.

Any Port in a Storm

A spilt coffee at the tram station on a snowy night leads to a table set for three.

Car Wash

Colin had always loved washing the neighbour’s car for pocket money. Rod’s classic car collection was a boy’s dream. And so is Rod, now Colin’s home from university and not a boy any more. Colin’s had a little fantasy about Rod’s vintage Jaguar and her gleaming curves for a while now…

Purchase

NineStar Press | Amazon | Smashwords | Barnes & Noble | Kobo

Meet the Author

Storm Duffy has a number of erotica shorts published under that and other names in a variety of venues, including “The Mammoth Book of Quick and Dirty Erotica”. As Jules Jones, she has written several erotic romance novellas and novels, including the first M/M romance published by Loose Id.

Amongst the 2500 or so books on shelves in her house, there is room for rather a lot of cross-stitch thread and entirely too many balls of wool. There are also more bits of computer kit than is quite reasonable for someone who doesn’t do that for a living. The two microscopes, on the other hand, are entirely in keeping with a career in science.

Website | Twitter | Authorgraph

 

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An Alisa Review: Burning Now by A.R. Moler

Rating:  3 stars out of 5

 

What do you do when the body in the burned building turns out to be alive?

 

Fireman Gideon Sato stumbles over a man oddly still alive and in remarkable health in the ashes of a warehouse fire. A strange connection runs between Gideon and the man, Vanya Stravinsky, despite Vanya’s confusion and loss of memory.

 

Vanya, a chef, gets mugged after work one evening. He wakes up, nude, in the ashes of a fire. He doesn’t remember much of what happened, but he can guess how he got there. He too feels that connection with his rescuer, but he’s got to decide how much to tell Gideon. Not to mention, the cops think that Vanya was up to no good in that warehouse fire.

 

Somehow Vanya and Gideon have figure out what’s really going on and also prove Vanya’s innocence. Life just got complicated!

 

This was a nice story.  Gideon feels a strong connection to Vanya when he finds him in the rubble of the fire and can’t help but keep thinking of him.  Vanya tries to remember how he got into the building but at the same time needs to keep his secrets.

 

We see both characters’ points of view in this story and can see how they feel throughout the book.  It seemed strange that Vanya didn’t know too much about his heritage or shifting while at the same time trying to explain it to Gideon.  While I liked Vanya finding the one and Gideon finally finding the relationship he has been looking for I just felt as if something was missing.

 

The cover art by Kris Jacen is nice and goes well with the story.

 

Sales Links: MLR Press | Amazon | B&N

 

Book Details:

ebook, 85 pages

Published: June 7, 2017 by MLR Press

Edition Language: English

A MelanieM Review: Werecat: The Sim Ru Prophecy by Andrew J. Peters

Rating: 4.75 stars out of 5

The final installment of the Werecat series, a finalist in the 2016 Romance Reviews Readers’ Choice Awards.

A fugitive from two murder investigations in New York City and a bizarre, big cat attack at a bank in Barbados, Jacks Dowd flees to South America to find the ringleader of a shifter terrorist organization deep in the Amazon. The world is on the brink of all-out war between shifters and humans, and Jacks needs to somehow broker a deal for peace.

But a special U.S. intelligence agency emerges as a new, possibly even more dangerous enemy. Both the terrorists and the U.S. government will stop at nothing to get an arcane codex that could unleash an unstoppable threat to mankind or exterminate werecats everywhere.

While Jacks dodges danger from both sides and decodes the ancient book, he’s left with the impossible choice of how to use it.

Final installment?  Hmmmm, maybe…..

I say that because when I finished the story, the first thing I did was write the author asking if, surely, there was another story just around the corner because you couldn’t leave Jacks and the Werecat series like this.  No, there wasn’t a cliffhanger. But there was left open the possibility that Jacks still had a huge task to accomplish, one I very much wanted to read about because this is a wonderful series.

Werecat: The Sim Ru Prophecy takes up right after the last story, The Fugitive ends, with the threat of interspecies warfare, Jacks trying to track down the head of the murderous werecat splinter group called The Glaring and the world on the edge of exploding.  Peters continues to build his intriguing mythology here, bringing in more ancient history and god elements.  As Jacks investigates how the werecats came into being in his search for the werecat leader Tepe in the jungles of South America, the reader gets pulled deeply into the mysteries the author is constructing.  There are more murders, increasing mystical elements and of course a government/military conspiracy worthy of any major action/adventure movie.

Throw in Jacks and his human lover, Farzan, still trying to steady their relationship, and Jacks realizing the reality of the human/werecat age span, and still have a romance /love affair and this story has oodles to offer.  That is if any of them get out of this alive.  The odds are definitely not in their favor!

I gobbled up this book in one quick read, I couldn’t get to the next scene fast enough.  So much action, so much  suspense and yes, a ton of surprises here.  And I can’t talk about any of them because everything is folded in together, melded like one great riveting mythological tapestry, that to give out one fact, just points to another spoiler and that’s just not going to happen.  Wonderful writing and great storying telling here.  It made me want to smack all four books together for one continuous read.  I just may do that.

The characters are real and believable, the settings vivid and authentic and the situations tense and suspenseful.  Trust me it’s a white-knuckle ride most of the time.

Why not five stars?  Because of that little nudge towards another story.  Peters would only say it’s not in the works yet.  Argh!!!!  We need to know what Jacks is going to do next…the future awaits him and us.  Andrew J. Peters, are you listening?

Until he does, grab up all the Werecat stories and read all the way through to this one.  What an amazing saga!  It’s a series I highly recommend.

Cover art works, especially with that wall in the backdrop.

Sales Links:  Amazon

Book Details:

Kindle Edition, 287 pages
Published June 27th 2017 by Vagabondage Romance
ASINB072WT8PPN

An Alisa Review: Different Dynamics by Tamir Drake

Rating:  4.25 stars out of 5

 

Richard doesn’t mind being an omega; all he cares about is playing good hockey, even though it means ignoring the media that tries to rip him apart for it. They don’t think omegas should be allowed on the ice, but he gets along fine. He’s team captain. He can play with the best of them.

 

The one sticking point is his heats; Richard might be on suppressants, but he’s one of the unlucky ones who still gets a heat every four months or so. They suck to deal with, especially alone, but seeking out a heat partner isn’t an option. The PR nightmare alone keeps him from any kind of hook-up. He can’t risk it. Hockey is all he’s got.

 

When Richard’s heat comes early while his team is on a roadie, teammate and best friend James helps him out of a bad situation. Tired of hurting, Richard decides it’s better not to go it alone. And James is safe and warm; he’s a great alpha who knows just what Richard needs. When Richard also imprints on big, bad rival player, Dmitry Sokolov? There’s sweet comfort in a three-way with lots of knotting and dirty talk.

 

Richard might be on cloud nine.

 

I really liked this story.  Considering Richard is an omega he knows next to nothing about his own biology other than the fact that he still gets heats even with the suppressants.  He has never had anyone to help him through his heats before and isn’t sure what to do about how he is feeling but with James and then also Dmitry they are able to take care of him.

 

Richard has always had to keep his guard up and protect himself from the nay sayers, but watching him finally have the opportunity to give up his control and let James and Dmitry take care and protect him was wonderful.  This story is told from Richard’s viewpoint so we can see his confusion and helplessness when it comes to how this heat reacts to his medicine and hormones.  James and Dmitry make it clear that they want to be there for Richard in the future in which Richard is hopeful for, but there is mention about both of them having to be there for heats and Dmitry doesn’t live near Richard and James.  I’m not sure if it can change by heat or if he will continue to need both of them if they continue their relationship.

 

Cover art by Natasha Snow is great and gives us a great visual of Richard.

 

Sales Links: Nine Star Press | Amazon | B&N

 

Book Details:

ebook, 63 pages

Published: June 26, 2017 by Nine Star Press

ISBN: 9781947139329

Edition Language: English

A MelanieM Review: The Werecat Trilogy by Andrew J. Peters

Rating: 4.5 stars out of 5

The first three installments of the Werecat series: The Rearing, The Glaring, and The Fugitive, in one eBook or paperback.

Twenty-two-year-old Jacks is on a mission to drown his past in alcohol when he meets the handsome drifter Benoit on a lost weekend in Montréal. It’s lust and possibly something more. Jacks never suspects that a drunken hook-up will plunge him into the hidden, violent world of feline shifters.

Benoit traps him in an arcane ritual to be joined as mates, from which Jacks emerges with fantastical abilities and a connection to Native traditions that were buried by his family. But his new existence pits his human instincts against his wild animal nature. When Jacks meets the young medical student Farzan, who wants to be with Jacks no matter what or who he is, Benoit’s feline jealousy rages like an inferno.

Jacks must figure out how to survive with his dual nature and a boyfriend who will kill any threat to their relationship. When a secret society called The Glaring shows up with a plan to exterminate humankind, Jacks will have to work quickly to gain command of Benoit’s magic before the world shatters into a war of man against beast.

WereCat: The Trilogy is the first collection of stories I’ve read by Andrew J. Peters and I’m impressed by his writing.  Peters did a splendid job of building a mythology for his werecats, creating a universe complete with a division within the werecat community that’s building towards all out war, and yet he doesn’t miss out on the smaller details needed to pull you back down into the immediate lives of his main characters and the drama/mating that is derailing all of their lives.

Peters has also departed from most of the other shifter stories here in that this is not one of those meet/mate/instant love stories.  In fact, it’s as far from one of those as you can get.  Without giving too much away, the romance here is not where you will be expecting it.  What Peters does deliver is concise and realistic portraits of werecats/beings acting exactly how you would expect them to act under varying circumstances.  As individuals with their own powerful emotions,  with the bodies of huge cats to use as weapons or assert control if they want to or need to.  As you watch the dynamics shift between Benoit and Jacks, the stress and tension Peters creates becomes so huge that the reader is almost afraid to turn the page.

Farzan, the human medical student is another wonderful character.  Fragile according to werecat standards, Farzan has strengths that allow the reader to connect with him ways that maybe aren’t there with the other characters.  He is surrounded by family that loves him and has a further connection to the human race that’s missing from the werecats, an important element in the larger picture.

Each story moves the reader through an  ever increasing major storyline of global warfare against humanity by a splinter werecat group called The Glaring and Jacks attempts to stop it.  The Fugitive, the last story in the trio, sees Jacks on the run and ends with a bit of a cliffhanger. Although it brings some of the storylines to a completion, the main one is still ongoing, waiting to be fulfilled in Werecat: The Sim Ru Prophecy  which is coming up next.  That’s where I’m headed.  I can’t wait to see what I find.

Until then, if you love shifters, want a bit of a different take on the usual mating ritual, and don’t mind a departure from the romance path  (although there is one),  pick up Werecat: The Trilogy.  I highly recommend them all.  Great stories!

Cover is a dramatic and,imo, beautiful representation of Benoit in both his human and panther forms.  I love it.  The only thing is Benoit’s eyes never changed in both forms.

Purchase at:  Amazon | Barnes & Noble

 

 

Book Details:

Kindle Edition, 250 pages
Published November 1st 2015 by Vagabondage Romance (first published November 15th 2014)
ASINB017HTCRPM
Edition LanguageEnglish
SeriesWerecat #1-3

A finalist in The Romance Reviews’ 2016 Readers’ Choice Awards, Action-Adventure category