Category: M/M Paranormal Fiction

Scattered Thoughts and Rogue Words Author Discovery: Stella on Wulf Francu Godgluck

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Wulf Francu Godgluck

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I am an enthusiastic member of the M/M Romance group on Goodreads. If you are too, you know their moderators work really hard every year to host an event that includes a collection of free M/M short stories, novellas and novels written by authors/members of it. Being in love with the group and the M/M world, I try to read most of these stories each time. Last year one I picked was Of Gods and Monsters: Menoetius by a new to me author called Wulf Francu Godgluck (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/23110843-of-gods-and-monsters?ac=1) and it pretty much was love at first reading.

I admit he writes what I usually don’t read; in general I need my books to be sickening sweet and pure romance and it’s totally not Wulf’s style. Still I loved his stories (and I like adding a big FOR NOW cause I’m pretty sure I’m going to kill him about his WIP works LOL). Okay the language is really not so clean, in some parts a little much too hard, a little much too dirty, I can understand it’s not for everyone but I’m all for it.

Of Gods and Monsters: Menoetius is the story of Colt and Beo. Apart from the plot that pushes a lot of buttons (BDSM, alpha man, sweet sub), what caught me from the start was the writing and the fact that it was able to make me emotional, not easy because of the asshole MC. But the thing that wins me over was the idea that love can make us better. Seeing Colt change himself into a better man was really beautiful. I’m pretty sure this story could be perfect for anyone who wants to dive into Wulf’s crazy world for the first time. And it’s free. Be ready for the next installment in the Of Gods And Monsters series, Hades, coming in July 2015. I’m not sure if it’s going to be a M/M/M or a love triangle story but I can’t wait!

Then if you are looking for something really different, you absolutely need to try the A Tooth Claw and Horns Chronicle series. It’s made of short episodes and I can tell you each one will leave you hungry for more and angry at Wulf, but the pain is so worth it. This series is dark, mysterious and well balanced, there is a solid plot and well defined characters (surprisingly, see the few pages each episode has). Most of all it’s original. I can anticipate the next episode will be so much more in every way, taboos and cliffhanger are assured. Stay tuned for late summer.

As I hope you understood reading my thoughts, Wulf Francu Godgluck has a crazy world in his mind, he spaces from contemporary to paranormal, from BDSM to vampires. Last one he worked on was a sci fi story called ACID for the new M/M romance group’s event. I read some sneak peaks (here https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/2232381-dear-author-free-dreamer—claimed-by-wulf-francu-godgluck?page=1) and I’m really curious. It is unique and darker but so unbelievably interesting.

Last thing. If you are going to check out these books be aware that the cover artist is the same Wulf and I find them different from the usual ones I see everywhere and perfect for his writing style. I can’t recommend this author enough.

About author Wulf Francu Godgluck

They come to me in the night, creeping into my head. Their voices are all different, their stories all dissimilar, but they keep saying the same thing…

“Show us, tell us to the world. Bring us into yours, and make us known.”

Then I sit and they take over. They tell their tales of love, loss and sinister misfortune, not all of them get a happy ending, but they are pleased when their part is written.


I sometimes find myself lost in my own mind; a world very similar to our own yet so different. Things don’t go bump in the night—they squeal, and crawl under your skin, making you grind your teeth, and your stomach turn over and put your nerves on edge. Then there’s the drama. Oh, the drama!

I write because I must! There is so much inside of me that needs to get out. So many stories to tell, characters that want to be heard, and hearts lost and won. Words and art are my way of bringing my world to others. I enjoy telling tales of the human condition but working in elements of the supernatural. Werewolves, Vampires, Zombies, Witches and the unexplainable all set against the human world or worlds of their own.

I was born and raised in Cape Town, South Africa, grew up in a working class family and enjoy writing, cooking and spending my husband’s money! Yeah I’m a cocky little brat too 🙂 (and proud of it, spankings included.)

Where to find him

Goodreads Author Page
Facebook Author Page
Website

Books and links to Stella’s Reviews:

A SNIPPET FROM Of Gods and Monsters: Hades

COMING ON JULY 2015

It was the day Kemono returned from a five week mission in Russia that his father tested him. Twenty years of age when he stood before the snake. Kemono’s only friend, Mamoru, stood beside him, their gaze trained on the wall.
His father ordered him to kill Mamoru.

Blood had still dripped from his trembling hands while his father smiled, bitter pride in his eyes. “There’s the monster I spawned.” Kemono just stood, jaw ticking, locked tight, and balled his fists. Mamoru’s blood sticky and still warm as it pussed from between his fingers. His friend lying next to him, choking as gore pooled from his throat where Kemono had sliced it.

Kemono stood there feeling nothing. Nothing for his friend of fifteen years, a man and boy he had been intimate with on far too many nights, a friend he knew was in love with him. Nothing when Mamoru’s body was dragged out of the room to be disposed of. Nothing for the mother and sister left without a son and a brother to provide for them. Nothing, knowing they would starve. Nothing. He had felt it for so long now.

Only when he walked out of the washitsu, stepped down the hall to wash his hands and come back out, did he feel something.

Anger. Pain. Worry. Fury.

He flared his nostrils, squinting his eyes. Tremors ringing up his body, his muscles pulsing, going taut at the same time.

His frame vibrated violently in rage.

His Shuiro’s soft sobs was a hand against his throat choking him, slowly ripping him apart inside. The boy rested against one of the pillars, his back damp as the material stuck to his bony skin. Kemono had looked at the sky briefly, noting the sun’s position, confirming the time of day, late afternoon as sunlight played, making the blue sky sing with purple, pinks and shades of gold. It was usually around this time his Shuiro came from training with his sensei, a kind man, but he was known for pushing his students hard.

But it was the slump to his Shuiro’s shoulders that was unpleasing to Kemono’s sight.

His heart had clenched, pain shooting in his chest when his Shuiro collapsed against the pillar, sliding against it to the floor. The boy’s chest heaving, lips parted and eyes closed.

Kemono hated to see the boy and not be able to see those dancing eyes.

He stomped towards him, furious that his steps didn’t invoke the reaction he wanted.

His Shuiro should have been up, alert with his gaze down to the floor, pressing himself against the pillar to appear smaller than he was, to somehow make his presence disappear. Rex always did that when he and Kemono’s paths crossed in the temple. It was that form of submissioned respect he cherished in the boy. The shyness and innocent the boy possessed that had speared and claimed Kemono’s heart.

He knelt before his Shuiro, his hands numb, not knowing what to do with them.

“Kemono-san,” his Shuiro had whimpered. It was the second word he had spoken to Kemono, and the first time the boy had said his name. His venomous name, coming from innocent lips. Not just Kemono, but Kemono-san. It did things inside, ruptures and tears and rips and—

Warm clammy hands had touched his cheeks. He snapped his gaze to his Shuiro’s, and the boy smiled, a smile that didn’t melt the ice around Kemono’s dead heart, but seared it into vapors of steam. His heart pounded hard against his ribs. Loud in his ears. It hurt inside. Raw. Bleeding. It had hurt so very much.

His fingers had shook as he inspected the cut on his boy’s bottom lip, gently brushing his thumb over the bloodied bruise. Small arms were wrapped around his neck, a wet cheek pressed against his hairy chest in the gap of his yukata while weak words spilled from his Shuiro’s lips.

“I missed you.”

Kemono just breathed, sucked in the smell of his Shuiro while his heart was bleeding, screaming, crying. The embrace was too much, the words a brutal scar to his heart.

Soft lips pressing against his.

And Kemono trembled.

He quaked.

His big hands on the boy’s small shoulder holding him painfully tight, and he knew it was wrong, volitional and blasphemous, destroying innocence like this, but it was the first human touch he had ever been given.

Kemono had opened for him, allowed his Shuiro to taste him. And Kemono had tasted back. He kissed him so hard that he tasted his Shuiro’s life. He savored that purity, the freedom to cry, to laugh, to stumble and fall, to be weak…to be human.

He carved that into his very soul, his very heart and, in that kiss, he willed a silent promise: Someday I will take care of you, my innocent Shuiro.

The slam of a cane against wood floors had made Kemono roar into those soft lips, sending his sutoroberī to scurry away from him.

His father had found them.

A Bj Review: Unconventional In San Diego Anthology (Authors Carol Lynne, Amber Kell, T.A. Chase, Jambrea Jo Jones, Devon Rhodes)

Overall Rating:   3.75 stars out of 5

Unconventional In San Diego Anthology coverThis anthology features stories by Carol Lynne, Amber Kell, TA Chase, Jambrea Jo Jones, and Devon Rhodes; the stories are tied together by a common setting, a paranormal club/bar in San Diego named Unconventional.

Fate’s Bridge by Carol Lynne – 2.75 stars


Vampire Roman Gschwind discovers the soul of his lost love inside the body of another. Having promised not to turn his love, he has no choice but to allow his brother Alexi to do so in order to save his life. But now he must decide if he’s willing to share his love with another vampire in order to rekindle what he lost?

This one started well, but quickly became disjointed for me. This story has quite a lot of M/M/M sex and very little buildup of sexual tension beforehand, which made it a bit flat for me. There wasn’t a lot of character development, especially of Alexi, and that combined with lower levels of UST than I prefer kept me from forming a connection to the characters. Reincarnation is an interesting theme, so I was looking forward to that aspect. Julian and Roman’s story was touching, and the ending gave it such a bittersweet twist that it made me teary. But I think the story suffered because of length and moving too fast, especially at the beginning.

Coming in Third by Amber Kell – 3.5 stars

Niall is a fae prince who’s fifth in line for the throne, and his mother wants him wed. When Niall sneaks out of the palace to fulfill a fantasy of having two men, he winds up at Unconventional faced with a pair of lion shifters looking to spice up their love life. After a night with him, Jovan and Luka’s shifter instincts tell them the innocent fae could be their long sought mate—the one fated to be theirs. But Niall’s guards cart him back to the palace and a possible arranged marriage. Will the shifters go after him or let it be the one-night stand Niall had offered?

For those who might be bothered by it, be aware that this one has some abuse (past/off page) both from Niall’s domineering, controlling mother and the guards who string him up and whip him at his mother’s instructions. Niall is a magical fae, but the bindings his guards use strip away his magic. This is a case of an established couple bringing in a third who had been search for exactly such a situation, hence no jealousy or angst. I loved that Niall glowed when sated, and that despite being small, he was strong both physically and mentally (the former because of his magic). A cute story with some interesting world details and a satisfying ending. Some humor in this one. Also some rather weird metaphor use, some of which worked for me and others which totally didn’t.

The Unicorn Said Yes by T.A. Chase – 3 stars

Ivan Brusilov, king of the unicorns, goes to Unconventional for a drink and meets Carney Ferguson—a twenty-five year old human virgin. Turns out that innocence, and hence virgins, are irresistible to unicorns! But there are darker forces at work and neither Ivan nor Carney are safe and things are not as they seem.

This was cute at first but got to be confusing at parts. There was an awful lot of telling vs showing and some repetitiveness. I found it strange that they were both so into the Kinsey scale enough to have known their exact number ratings. I enjoyed Carney’s brother Jordan quite a bit. Many things about the way the story as a whole was told didn’t work so well for me, but the premise was quite unique and interesting and the tension and intrigue in the latter half was well done.

‘Blood on the Moon’ by Jambrea Jo Jones – 3.75 stars

Montague Ramey is a witch seeking exciting in his boring everyday life. Then came the night the moon turned red and his life changed. Kishar Nichelson’s is an incubus whose motorcycle ended up in a ditch on the road at midnight under the red moon and then stalled out on him. Someone’s after him, but he can’t remember what happened exactly and he’s weak from lack of sex that its hard for him to think. Can a witch and an incubus find love and solve a mystery on the night of the blood moon?

Montague is a rather sad, mousy man at the start of this story. And not really very appealing. This story, like the one before, had lots of telling vs showing at the start, but I liked how it tied in some characters from prior stories. There was a contradiction that bothered me and took me out of the story early on–him wishing out loud for something exciting to happen in one sentence and cowering from having even said it out loud in the next. Huh? BUT…

Kishar, on the other hand, was quite interesting from the start. An incubus who chooses to feed his need for sex with other paranormals rather than harm the delicate, fragile humans. And once the two are together, it starts to work for me. The head-hopping made it a bit hard to follow at parts, but I enjoyed seeing both characters grow and change once they found each other. Overall, it was a bit playful with some nice action and a sweet HEA.

A Sliver of Sunset by Devon Rhodes – 4.25 stars

Angelo is the only paranormal known to ever have leukemia, and the doctors are mystified as to the cause. To cure himself, he must repress his shifter side with a chemical inhibitor so he can go through chemotherapy as a human. Dominic hooked up with hottest guy and spent a night having the best sex ever, but wakes to find his lover gone. A week later, he meet a new oncology patient to find the same man fighting for his life and dependent upon his care.

This is by far my favorite story in this anthology. Angelo intrigued me from when I read about him in one of the earlier stories, and I hoped we’d get more about him. Glad I was right. More than any of the other stories, this one gave a sense of being set in San Diego (where I lived for some years in the past). This anchor story of the collection also did an excellent job of tying all the stories together.

I won’t give away exactly what sort of paranormal Angelo is, since that’s a fun part of the story to learn as you go. I don’t usually like to read stories in which one of the MC has cancer (or any possibly fatal disease), but this was an exception. This is well-written, well-paced and all-around enjoyable read.

The cover is appealing; picturing the cityscape and two hot guys in sunglasses, so it has a definite San Diego feel and caught my eye. However, I don’t think it gave me much of a feel for the stories within as nothing about it says paranormal.

Sales Links: Pride Publishing |  Amazon | Buy It Here

Book Details:

ebook, 198 pages
Published July 11th 2015 by Pride Publishing
ISBN139781784306878
edition languageEnglish
other editions (1)
Unconventional in San Diego

Time to Reveal the Cover for Discovery (Drakyl Ranch #1) by Thianna Durston

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Discovery (Drakyl Ranch #1) by Thianna Durston
Release Date: September 1st, 2015

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Goodreads Link:
Publisher: Thianna Durston
Cover Artist: Jay Aheer – Simply Defined Art

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Sales Links: Amazon

Its on pre-order sale for $2.99 until release day!

About Discovery

Warning: This book is a paranormal m/m romance with some horror elements. It also crosses cowboy and vampire genres. If you don’t think cowboys look hot with fangs, you’re missing out.

Living in Montana and working the ranch is all Aaron wants to do for the rest of his life. Diagnosed as allergic to the sun thirteen years previous, every day is a struggle to get out of bed. Having to wear long-sleeved shirts, gloves, and even material to cover his face from the effects of the sun, just makes it all worse. Now, in his thirty-second year, he is sure this will be his last summer. While he hates it, he knows he needs to come to terms with the truth and put things in order for his younger cousins. Before he does so, he heads out for one night of pleasure before facing what’s coming.

Jaret loves excitement and new adventures. For over five hundred years, he has sought them out. In Montana on a whim, he comes across someone he doesn’t expect, someone who makes him feel things he does not understand and does not want to give up. In no time at all, he feels like he cannot live without Aaron. The only problem is Aaron doesn’t know who he is, what he is, nor that he isn’t going to die. Not on Jaret’s watch. With a plan to help the other man discover who he is in place, he only has one thing to worry about: whether an ancient enemy will come and destroy everything he now holds dear.

Categories: Gay Fiction, M/M Romance, Paranormal, Western/Cowboy

Excerpt from Discovery:

“You’re not going to die, Aaron.”

“You don’t know that. This sickness, ailment, curse…whatever the fuck it is. It’s gettin’ worse. And it’s changin’. Morphin’ into somethin’ scary. My nightmares lately have been horrible.”

“What kind of nightmares?” Of course, Jaret knew. They were the same kind all of them had during the change. Fire and ice as the body went through horrendous chills and soaring high fevers. They would only stop once the change was complete. For after that, there was no real sleep anymore.

“Bein’ caught on high mountains, pelted with snow. Of the forests here bright with orange fire. Of you—” His voice broke. “Callin’ out my name only I’m no longer here to respond.”

“Babe,” Jaret said in a soft voice, not understanding why but knowing he was closer to this drakyl than he had ever been to anyone. “We’re going to get you cured. Then you can come out with me at night. We’ll keep the place predator free while your cousins slave in the sun. How does that sound?”

A sad attempt at a laugh left the other man’s throat. “Promise me you won’t leave until I’m gone?”

Fury swept along Jaret’s veins. Anger at the sun, the fact the man next to him was terrified, and at Davis for not explaining to the poor man earlier what he was. But mostly, he was furious at himself for not telling Aaron the truth. Leaning in, he placed his nose against Aaron’s. “I promise you,” he said in a deep growl, “that you are not going to die, Aaron Drakyl. I won’t let it happen.”

About the author:

Thianna loves to write strong stories with even stronger heroes. While all of her books have an erotic overtone, it is the story that is the most important to her. “The story should be able to stand on its own. The erotic elements are an add-on.”

She enjoys writing about couples with kink, paranormal couples, and straight out strangeness. But more on that later… You can find her at mm.thiannad.com.
She also writes m/f under the name Thianna D.

Where to find the author:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thiannaDismyname?fref=ts
Facebook Author Page: https://www.facebook.com/ThiannaDurstonAuthor?fref=ts
Twitter: https://twitter.com/the_weremouse
Website: http://www.mm.thiannad.com

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Tour Dates & Stops: August 10, 2015
Parker Williams, Scattered Thoughts & Rogue Words, Rainbow Gold Reviews, BFD Book Blog, Bayou Book Junkie, My Fiction Nook, Havan Fellows, Jessie G. Books, Prism Book Alliance, Molly Lolly, Amanda C. Stone, MM Good Book Reviews, EE Montgomery, Happily Ever Chapter, Vampires, Werewolves, and Fairies, Oh My, Up All Night, Read All Day, Charley Descoteaux, Emotion in Motion, Inked Rainbow Reads, Mikky’s World of Books, Velvet Panic, Divine Magazine, Iyana Jenna, Michael Mandrake, It’s Raining Men

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Giveaway

Must be 18 years of age or older to enter.  Link and prizes provided by the author and Pride Promotions. Rafflecopter Prize: eCopy of ‘Discovery’ when it comes out.
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A Mika Review: Ink and Shadows (Ink and Shadows #1) by Rhys Ford

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

Kismet Andreas lives in fear of the shadows.

Ink & Shadows coverFor the young tattoo artist, the shadows hold more than darkness. He is certain of his insanity because the dark holds creatures and crawling things only he can see—monsters who hunt out the weak to eat their minds and souls, leaving behind only empty husks and despair.

And if there’s one thing Kismet fears more than being hunted—it’s the madness left in its wake.

The shadowy Veil is Mal’s home. As Pestilence, he is the youngest—and most inexperienced—of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, immortal manifestations resurrected to serve—and cull—mankind. Invisible to all but the dead and insane, the Four exist between the Veil and the mortal world, bound to their nearly eternal fate. Feared by other immortals, the Horsemen live in near solitude but Mal longs to know more than Death, War and Famine.

Mal longs to be… more human. To interact with someone other than lunatics or the deceased.

When Kismet rescues Mal from a shadowy attack, Pestilence is suddenly thrust into a vicious war—where mankind is the prize, and the only one who has faith in Mal is the human the other Horsemen believe is destined to die.

More solid writing from Rhys Ford in Ink and Shadows. I love her writing style. I think this is the lowest rating I’ve given one of her books. Well it’s not the writing or the story, it was me. I could not get into it, and I’m sad that I wasn’t able to grasp it like I would have liked to. I went into this book knowing UF  (urban fantasy) is not really my thing. I liked a lot of the story. I loved the introductions of all the characters. I liked the religious aspects of some of it. I wish the world building and I would have gotten along more. I don’t have the patience for UF, and a lot of this story was slow paced, and just reading about the foundation of how everything has come about.

At the 50% I felt an inkling of joy for the romance portion of this book. Just inkling. There NO romance in the story. I really like Rhys Ford and picked this story up expecting some romance but didn’t realize that DSP Publications is an imprint that doesn’t publish romance stories. Being that this is not a romance story I felt like the emotional part was lacking a lot in the story. Kismet and Mal both had the potential that I like when it comes to her guys, but again it’s UF and that was  the focus for the story. I know she wrote the characters to be built up for a series. It makes sense to have the introductions, and characters relationships out in the opening. I just wanted a smidge more.

I think for myself when it comes to Rhys Ford I’m very biased about her characters. I want them all to have that Cole & Jae love aspect, but it doesn’t work like that. My favorite thing about this book was Mal. Reading about him, he just seemed so young, and innocent in the beginning, but he has this protective streak a mile long with Kismet. I love that name as well. I thought the Four is a really good concept; it’s something I’m familiar with. I loved Death; his entire persona had me thinking of Supernatural’s Death who is my favorite Horseman ever. I’d recommend this to readers of UF. This is a perfect book for them. Great intro to the story, as well as characters.

Cover Art by Anne Cain: This cover is definitely one of my favorite out the year. I loved it, such a in your face representation of what Kismet is in the book. Very beautiful.

Sales Links:  DSP Publications |  Amazon | Buy It Here

Book Details:

ebook, 304 pages
Published July 7th 2015 by DSP Publications
original titleInk and Shadows
ISBN139781634760171
edition languageEnglish
seriesInk and Shadows #1

The Sirius’ Wolf Pack is back in Broken Circle by Victoria Sue (excerpt and giveaway)

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Broken Circle (Sirius’ Wolves #2) by Victoria Sue
Release Date: July 31, 2015

STRW In The Spotlight Header

Goodreads Link
Publisher: Dark Hollows Press
Cover Artist: 3 Rusted Spoons

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Sales Links:

STRW Author BookSynopsis

Blaze, the most powerful werewolf on the planet has found his omega, Aden. Together with Conner and Darric they finally become true mates, fulfilling an ancient prophecy by the goddess Sirius and forming Orion’s Circle. The battle against the terrorist group, the Winter Circle, has begun.

Blaze, however, is fighting his own battle. Aden is due to birth a child, and despite Blaze’s six hundred years of being an Alpha, nothing has prepared him for his hardest challenge yet — how to become a father. His struggles are hurting the people he loves the most and threatening their bond.

The madman who kidnapped and tortured Aden still hasn’t been caught, and when the worst happens and their circle is broken, Blaze has to fight his biggest threat yet – his own inner weakness – an enemy against which his Alpha strength will be useless. Blaze has to learn that true strength is only found in forgiveness, and sometimes the most powerful weapon is love.

Pages or Words: 47,000 words

Categories: M/M Romance, Menage/Poly, Paranormal

STRW Spotlight Book Excerpt

Sales Links:

STRW Author Bio and Contacts

MM Love stories – because the only thing better than one hot guy is two of them.

Has loved books for as long as she can remember. Books were always what pocket money went on and what usually Father Christmas brought. When she ran out of her kids’ adventure stories, she would go raid her mom’s. By the age of eight she was devouring classics like Little Women, and fell in love with love stories.
She’s still in love with them. Any size, any shape, any creature – love is love, no matter what it says on the box.
In fact if they don’t fit very neatly into any box she loves them even more!
She has a very patient husband and three wonderful children. In 2010 in search of adventure they all moved from the UK to the US and are happily settled in Florida. Finally, after reading love stories for so long, she decided to write her own.

Where to find the author:
Facebook Author Page: https://www.facebook.com/victoriasueauthor
Twitter: @vickysuewrites
Blog: http://www.victoriasue.com

 

STRW Spotlight Contest Header

Enter to win a Rafflecopter Prize: Any book from Victoria Sue’s catalogue of books
Rafflecopter Code:

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Tour Dates & Stops:
3-Aug
BFD Book Blog, Full Moon Dreaming, Inked Rainbow Reads
4-Aug
MM Good Book Reviews, The Blogger Girls
5-Aug
Bayou Book Junkie, Sinfully Addicted to All Male Romance
6-Aug
Vampires, Werewolves, and Fairies, Oh My, Prism Book Alliance
7-Aug
Molly Lolly, Scattered Thoughts & Rogue Words, Love Bytes

 

Supernatural Book Spotlight: Strength To Let Go by Alina Popescu (Author Guest post, excerpt and giveaway)

Strength to Let Go Blog Tour

Title: Strength to Let Go
Series: Tales of the Werewolf Tribes, Book One
Author: Alina Popescu
Genre: gay romance, paranormal, werewolves, paranormal romance, supernatural
Publisher: Wayward Ink Publishing

We are delighted to have Alina Popescu here in our Supernatural Book spotlight to talk about her book Strength To Let Go and Tribes Over Packs. Welcome, Alina!

Tribes over Packs by Alina Popescu

Whenever you create a society of any type of beings, the first question that pops in your head is how they are organized. With werewolves, the go-to form of organization is a pack. But how big is a pack? Can it be a small family? And are these part human, part animal creatures only bound by the animal order? That’s how my thought process into how to organize my shifters started.

I saw packs as the basic form of organization, right after family. After that came the clan, something that has to do with an extended family. Think of a county and its inhabitants, and you get my clans. Within each nation, there are several of them.

But what could I have ruling over the clans? I had to go back a bit, and decided the tribe is one of the oldest forms of organization I could use. Common culture and language, common territory, that leads to nationality, but when you need more than just your own kin, the tribe comes into play. Descendants of the old tribes might have mixed and migrated across borders, but the core was still there to provide some sort of belonging.

With areas like the Americas and Asia, the tribe spans over large territories, uniting clans of different nationalities. In Europe… well, we have this habit of having a lot of small factions that fight each other, so it made sense to me to have nationality matter more than anything, and thus came the large number of tribes roaming the same continent.

There was, however, e secondary reason to go for the tribe and make it mightier than anything – its link to myths and long forgotten stories, dating back to the dawn of time. Older than most surviving clans and the names and rulers of a country, part folk tale and part reality, the tribe holds some mystery that I find appealing.

A tribe implies an undeniable bond, yet that idea is in such stark contrast with what’s really happening within. Just look at everything going on with the Dragons of the Fang. Clans fighting for supremacy, nations wanting to rule over others, how very human of them!

I love contradictions. I love to explore the fine line between paranormal, myth, and reality. How they blend, how they affect decision and behaviors. But when it really comes down to it, werewolf tribe just sounds so cool to me!

Synopsis

After being abandoned by his mates, Shiki Kirishima, beta of the Dragons of the Fang werewolf tribe, returns to his home in Tokyo.

Crippled by grief, Shiki decides to end it all by going into the territory of the Siberian Killers tribe and challenging them to a battle to the death.

His death.

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Ganzorig, beta of the Siberian Killers, however, sees the potentially disastrous consequences of having Shiki die in battle.

Instead, he saves him.

Having suffered loss himself, Ganz takes it upon himself to help Shiki deal with his pain.

Blake, Shikiís best friend since childhood, is as determined to show him there is life after a wolfís ultimate loss.

Could there also be something ëmoreí for them after friendship?

Excerpt (NSFW click on over 18 link to keep reading)

We hooked our arms around each other’s shoulders immediately after getting out of the car and made our way to the club entrance. This one was a popular hangout, but we had VIP status here. Everyone knew us, we could pretty much drop by at any point. Having a werewolf in my tribe for an owner sure sweetened the deal for us, but so did the large amounts of cash we’d dropped here. This was usually the first stop on our nights out. Because of our special treatment, we had access to the owner’s offices. That meant we could quench our thirst with a first catch of the night. We’d typically fly solo for this, finding our own prey, taking them somewhere private, and enjoying the hot and hard sex. Then we’d rejoin the other for one last drink before going to a different club.
We’d just randomly pick another Ni-chome hangout and start the other type of hunt: finding males we could share. One or two, depending on who we’d meet. Once we found them, we’d go back to Blake’s place and enjoy our spoils.
Everyone from the bouncers to the bartenders and the owner himself came to greet us. We had been no-shows for about a year and it seemed like our return was quite the event. It felt good to be treated like that, it made the club seem like a place we hung out with friends more than our hunting grounds for anonymous sex. It was probably my need to belong that caused those feelings anyway.
We had our very own, fine-tuned strategy when we were on the prowl. We’d go by the bar first, get a drink and finish it while chatting and saying hello to the people we knew at the club. This time it took a lot longer than usual, because there were questions about what we’d been up to. Blake took the lead and gave them vague answers, giving me time to notice the owner avert his eyes from me. So he knew…. I downed my drink and asked for another one. What the hell, it was bound to happen and I was determined not to let it spoil my good mood.

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Donít miss the Tickle Me Pink sale on the Wayward Ink Publishing site ñ 25% off all list prices till July 21st.

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Prizes: $10 WIP Gift Card, 3 signed Bookmarks, and 1 ecopy of Strength to Let Go.  Must be 18 years of age or older to enter.  Link and prizes provided by the author and Eyes on Books Promotions.

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About the author

Writer, traveler, and coffee addict, Alina Popescu has been in love with books all her life. She started writing when she was ten and she has always been drawn to sci-fi, fantasy, and the supernatural realm. Born and raised in Romania, she finds her inspiration in books of all genres, in movies, and the occasional manga comic book. She is a proud geek who needs her fast Internet and gadgets more than she needs air.

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A MelanieM Review: Lovers Entwined by Lillian Francis

Rating: 4 stars out of 5

Lovers Entwined cover 2Ewan is one of Boston’s leading genealogy experts. When a would-be bridegroom comes looking for confirmation that there are no skeletons in his ancestral closet, Ewan considers turning the job down. Trey is a jerk of the highest order and yet Ewan experiences an infuriating attraction that’s easy to justify. Trey’s exactly his type—a carbon copy of the man Ewan’s been looking for his entire life.

Harder to explain is the sense of recognition that leaves Ewan speechless the moment Trey steps into his office. Or the stomach-churning sensation at the thought of casting the job aside.

Trey gets more appealing by the day, leaving Ewan struggling with forbidden desire for his client. Desire not helped by strange voyeuristic dreams that have started to haunt his sleep. Dreams that appear to be an echo of the past…

Lovers Entwined by Lillian Francis is a moving, romantic story, one that I loved.  Based on the belief that true love has no boundaries, even that of time, it follows the deep love of Ewan/Owen and Trey/Tristan through centuries of tragedies until we find their latest reincarnations in Ewan, a leading genealogist, and surfer/playboy Trey, a groom whose future father in law is looking for reasons for his daughter to dump him.  Ewan has been hired to look into Trey’s family background for anything that could embarrass Trey’s fiance along with her father and his huge political aspirations.  But what Ewan finds soon starts to bind Trey and Ewan together, as odd facts, places and names trigger nightmares and recollections they should not be having.

As Trey spends more time with Ewan, it ignites the flashbacks to the other couples they once were and the tragedies that ended their lives but never their love for each other.  As each follow the other through death and time,  the names change only slightly as does the location and Francis connects them all in a manner that is logical and meaningful.  And heartbreaking.  Prepare to have the tissues close by when  each one meets their death once more. I was sobbing like mad several times in this story, even though I knew it was coming.  But the power of the descriptions and the emotional strength of those moments won through and I was lost.

There are some important, believable secondary characters too.  Trey’s grandfather, Pops, for one.  I adored him. And his nurse. Much harder to understand was Trey’s fiance who was more of a one-note character.  Her transformation from someone who Trey could love to the cold woman we met was never fully explained so she came off as just too one dimensional in a story with characters you believed in and a love that lasted through time.

Flashbacks can be a tricky thing, especially when going back not just one era but several.  But Francis handles each flashback and couple almost as a separate story, giving them the attention each is due.  She gives us a real connection to every reincarnation, and as that love is lost, all that affection and hope is transferred to the most recent couple…Ewan and Trey.

Lillian Francis is quickly becoming a “must read” for me.  I loved her “Theory Unproven“, and now her “Lovers Entwined”.  I highly recommend both of these stories and author Lillian Francis!

Cover art by Meredith Russell.  This cover really works.  It  establishes the characters of  Ewan and Trey as well as their counterparts of Owen and Tristan.  I loved it.

Sales Links:  All Romance (ARe) | Amazon | Buy It Here

Book Details:

ebook, 2nd edition
Published August 3rd 2015 by Smashwords Edition
(first published December 6th 2012)
ISBN139781310580345

 

 

 

 

In the Book Spotlight: The Homecoming by J. Scott Coatsworth (author interview and giveaway)

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The Homecoming by  J. Scott Coatsworth
Publisher: Less Than Three Press
Cover Artist: London Burden
Release Date: 7/29
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Sales Link:  Less Than Three Press

My Interview with Author J. Scott Coatsworth on writing, The Homecoming and Much More

  • Tell me a little about you and your writing:

Thanks for inviting me on the blog again! I’ve known I wanted to be a writer since I was a kid in elementary school in Tucson, Arizona. I wrote my first (longhand, illustrated in crayon) short story in fourth grade – and won a writing contest. In junior high, I graduated to an old manual typewriter, and eventually to an old IBM PC.

I’ve always been fascinated with Fantasy and Sci Fi and the intersection of the two. Most of my stories have revolved around those things; but lately, I’ve added a third thing to the mix – a little MM romance/interaction.

  • You have a new novella coming out – The Homecoming. What’s it about, and how does it fit into that scheme?

The homecoming was a story I started years ago. I wrote maybe three or four scenes, but never finished it. Then I saw a call for stories about the forest, and thought this piece would be perfect. But I had to give it a mixed-genre twist.

There is a romance in the story, but it’s not the main aspect. I call “The Homecoming” my wolfman-spaceman story, and it really does blend some aspects of sci fi with some aspects of shifter wolves. So it hits upon all three of my current writing interests.

  • Are you a full-time writer?

Oh, I wish. I have so many ideas I want to explore. But my husband Mark and I run our own little internet company, and that takes most of our time. I do try to sneak in an hour or hour and a half to write each day.

What other projects do you have going, writing-wise?

Hmmm, let’s see. I’ve finished two other novellas that are awaiting possible publication – one of them is a marriage equality love story set in my old home town of Tucson; the other is an elf in post-climate change San Francisco piece.

But I’m also working on a novel in four parts – basically four connected novellas – that will serve as the prequel to another novel I wrote in my twenties, but never published – I plan to go back to that one and rework it, eventually.

I also have an MM sci fi trilogy I’m working on called Oberon.

  • One more question – what do you do when you need to relax?

Relax? I don’t understand the question. *grin*

Thanks, Scott, for dropping in.  Now more about Scott’s new novel, The Homecoming.

STRW Author BookSynopsis

When his own world is destroyed, Aldiss and his crew barely manage to escape, leaving friends and lovers behind. What was meant to be an exploratory trip back to the home world turns into a mad dash for survival.

When they awaken from stasis on Earth, which was abandoned by humanity five centuries before, they must quickly learn about their new home. While exploring the region around the ship, Aldiss meets Hari, a shape-changer, whose people harbor secrets that might cost the crew their lives.

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STRW Spotlight Book Excerpt

Hari reached the edge of the woods just in time to see Neru crouching to leap at the two-legs. Young fool.

He gathered himself and jumped after Neru, knocking him aside as his teeth reached for the two-legs’ throat.

Neru turned and snarled at him, backing away toward the woods.

Hari stood firm, ears back, hackles raised, and drew the corners of his mouth back to reveal his teeth. Back off, Neru.

The whelp shook his head and grinned with the brashness of youth, until Hari leaped at him and nipped his ear. With a surprised yelp, Neru turned his head, deferring to Hari’s strength. As you say, brother. There was a cockiness to Neru’s look that unsettled him.

The other wolf backed up slowly then turned to disappear into the woods.

Hari caught a glimpse of Mavi watching from the shadows. The old wolf snarled, and slunk off after her son.

What do you seek, old mother? Hari wondered, watching Mavi’s silver-tipped tail flicker into the darkness. It was clear where Neru’s courage and cunning had come from.

Hari turned back toward the two-legs. He was holding a strange stick, not unlike the one that Hari’s grandmother had shown him in the wolf dream.

But it was his face that caught Hari’s eye. He knew that face. The two-legs’ eyes were white-gray, and his jet-black hair was swept to the side.

Despite the danger, he shifted in the manner only a few of the clan are able to do in the cold. He grew quickly taller and less hairy but no less muscled, and stood naked before the two-legs.

They stared at each other for a long moment. Hari felt an immense attraction washing over him. He saw in his summer form that this two-legs was beautiful. His own body responded to this… man… in an unexpected way, seeing and feeling things his winter form could not. Hari leaned forward and sniffed the stranger, drinking in his musk. It smelled enticing. Strangely familiar.

He sensed the two-legs stiffen, and to reassure, him, Hari licked the man’s neck.

The two-legs was trembling now like a young whelp, so he tried something else. He took the stranger’s face in his hands and kissed him.

The shaking slowed, and then the man was kissing him back. Hari was hungry for him, like a starving wolf at the end of a long, hard winter.

It is not the time for this, the keh whispered in his ear.

He broke contact and turned away, ashamed that he was betraying his Clan, and for lust. An emotion of his summer form.

“I’m sorry,” he said to the two-legs, without looking back. “It won’t happen again.” Even he was not sure if he meant Neru’s attack, or the kiss.

He shifted back into his winter form and loped off into the woods after his pack mates.

 

STRW Author Bio and Contacts

Scott has been writing since elementary school, when he and won a University of Arizona writing contest in 4th grade for his first sci fi story (with illustrations!). He finished his first novel in his mid twenties, but after seeing it rejected by ten publishers, he gave up on writing for a while.j-scott-coatsworth

Over the ensuing years, he came back to it periodically, but it never stuck. Then one day, he was complaining to Mark, his husband, early last year about how he had been derailed yet again by the death of a family member, and Mark said to him “the only one stopping you from writing is you.”

Since then, Scott has gone back to writing in a big way, finishing more than a dozen short stories – some new, some that he had started years before – and seeing his first sale. He’s embarking on a new trilogy, and also runs the Queer Sci Fi (http://www.queerscifi.com) site, a support group for writers of gay sci fi, fantasy, and supernatural fiction.

Website: http://www.jscottcoatsworth.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jscottcoatsworth

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Scott is giving away one copy of The Homecoming.  To enter to win you must be 18 years of age or older to enter.  Use the Rafflecopter link to enter and make sure we have your email address to reach you if you are chosen.  Contest runs from July 22 to August 5th, at midnight.