A Lila Release Day Review: I Love You More Than Pierogi (World of Love) by K.A. Merikan

Rating: 3.5 stars out of 5

Marek and Adrian dated in high school, but a bitter breakup led them to choose different paths. Adrian is out and proud while Marek is in the closet. Adrian embraces his eccentricity while Marek clings to a conservative image. And while Marek worked hard to build a successful life and financial stability by climbing the corporate ladder, Adrian threw caution to the wind and has spent the last five years backpacking across the world.

Now Adrian is back in Warsaw, Poland, but while Marek thinks they will have a hookup and have a blast from the past, Adrian is just looking for a place to crash. Worse still, Adrian turns up at Marek’s advertising agency for help with his outrageous new business venture, and if Marek wants to get promoted, he might have to work with the guy who broke his heart.

I Love You More Than Pierogi is all about Poland; especially their food. This is my first World of Love story and I like the idea of reading about countries I haven’t visited. It’s easy to see the authors’ affinity for the country and how they’re transmitting some of their own experiences throughout the story. It feels personal and realistic.

I love second chance stories and the relationship between Marek and Adrian is no exception. You can see the sparks between them from the moment they get back in contact. The paths theirs lives took after their original relationship ended transformed them into the man they are and somehow changed the expectations between the two.

The first part of the story is a bit slow and filled with information that helps the reader get into the smells, sites, and tastes of Poland. I had to google most of the food terms, including pierogi, but it didn’t take away from my enjoyment. I like learning new things as I read new stories.

The descriptions of the streets, architecture, etc. and the way of living (apartments, cars, and so) go hand in hand with what I knew about the country and its post-war reality. Some of the ways Marek’s office operates and the people they met were a bit over the top for me, but it added to the foreign feel.

The characters are beautifully written and their friendship is lovely later in the story. I just had trouble with Marek’s and Adrian’s mood swings, and some of the side stories. But overall, this is a great introductory romance with Poland at its heart.

The cover by Anna Sikorska is beautiful. One of the best I have seen in a while. The colors, the images, and the model work perfectly together to entice the reader to look further into the story.

Sale Links: Dreamspinner | Amazon | Nook

Book Details:

ebook, 101 pages
Published: January 4, 2017, Dreamspinner Press
ISBN: 9781635332100
Edition Language: English

A Jeri Review: Heart’s Gamble By S.J. Frost

Rating: 3.5 stars out of 5

An enemies to lovers sweet romance in horse country. Shawn goes to horse auctions to bid on and win whatever horses he can. He takes them back to his farm to rehabilitate them after they have been neglected. When he digs to find out who originally owned Heart’s Gamble, he discovers that the farm isn’t far from his and he wants words with the owner.

After Grant’s father dies, he inherits the horse farm that Grant left years before. And a mountain of debt. His original plan to sell it and move back to his life in California are thwarted by the arrival of a pissed off horse trainer- Shawn.

Shawn and Grant definitely have some great chemistry on the pages. Grant struggled with real life issues- namely what to do with his father’s farm, and the author showed what Shawn actually does as a horse rehabilitator. The scene when Shawn takes Grant to a horse auction so he can actually see what happens was heart breaking. When a story has real life issues and the characters actually go to work makes it more real for me.

This was low angst and a sweet read. The sex scenes were well done and rather hot I must say! SJ Frost can definitely write a sex scene!

If you are looking for a nice, easy read for the new year, I recommend. Prepare yourself for some cliché material though.

Cover art is lovely, and works perfectly for the story.

Sales Links

MLR Press LLC

Book Details:

Kindle Edition, 97 pages
Published October 21st 2016 by MLR Press
ASINB01M4KF4U4
Edition LanguageEnglish

A Stella Review: Falling Down by Eli Easton

RATING 5 out of 5 stars

Josh finds himself homeless at eighteen, but he has a plan. He’ll head north on the bus to New England and spend October there for his mother’s sake. She always talked about going to see the fall leaves someday. And when the leaves are done and the harsh winter comes, Josh plans to find a place to curl up and let go. It will be a relief to finally stop fighting.

Mark spent his life trying to live up to the tough swagger of his older brothers until he pushed himself so far against his nature that he cracked. Now a former Marine, he rents a little cabin in the White Mountains of New Hampshire where he can lick his wounds and figure out what to do with the rest of his life. One thing was clear: Mark was nobody’s hero.

Fate intervenes when Josh sets up camp under a covered bridge near Mark’s cabin. Mark recognizes the dead look in the young stranger’s eyes, and he feels compelled to do something about it. When Mark offers Josh a job, he never expects that he’ll be the one to fall.

The snow is coming soon. Can Mark convince Josh that the two of them can build a life together before the flurries begin?

Trigger Warning: Suicidal thoughts

I probably already said this a thousand times, but I have to repeat myself: Eli Easton is a guarantee in the mm community. She is an amazing writer and each new story is a powerful gem. Like Falling Down.

I knew since I read the blurb, this new book was going to leave me as an emotional wreck for a long time, and it actually did, but with a gentleness and a lightness I wasn’t expecting. I’m pretty sure I will remember those characters forever. I have to say I fell in love with them from the start.

Josh took my heart and gave it back to me just at the end when I realized things were really going to work out well for him and his Mark. He is so young and depressed and it went through so much in his life. I could relate to him because I went through the same grief when I had his age and so he touched my heart deeply. And then there was Mark, who is everything a person should be, good, caring, strong willed , trusting, imperfect. Two lonely souls who fate put on each others path and although hard lives, painful pasts and dark thoughts, an HEA is coming their way.

Eli wrote a beautiful slow burn story, Mark and Josh became first friends, while working together on Mrs. Fisher house and let the old woman take care of them just how much they start caring for her and for each other. A slow burn story but full of chemistry, the attraction between them is clear and strong.

Yes the book is full of angst (read the warning!) but in my opinion the author was great at dosing it in the right way. Although the angst and more than one intense scene where I cried all the tears I had in my eyes, Falling Down isn’t heavy or oppressing at all. It’s full of emotions and it filled my heart so much, I just surrender and loved it. It deserves more than five stars. Highly recommended.

I like the cover art by Eli Easton very much in general but I can’t actually see Josh in the model, he simply is not like I had pictured him in my mind. That said the cover is very well done.

SALE LINKS

BOOK DETAILS

Kindle Edition, 252 pages

Published November 7th 2016 by Pinkerton Road LLC

ASIN B01MSIYOHB

Edition Language English

Release Blitz Tour – Clare London – Chase The Ace (London Lads #1) (giveaway)

Chase The Ace (London Lads #1) – Clare London

Buy Links: Amazon US | Amazon UK | Dreamspinner

Length: 27,000 words

Publisher: Dreamspinner Press

Blurb

Newly single in his late twenties, and bored with his life in a London insurance company, Daniel Cross soon discovers the lure of social media. Excited at the chance of tracking down his old mates from a schooldays sports club, he launches a personal quest to find out what kind of man each boy has become.

Dan’s first mistake is chatting online to the wrong man—Nick Carson isn’t one of the boys, but his brother. Nick isn’t offended and offers to accompany Dan on the trip to find the others. It’s the first step to friendship and something more for both of them.

For Dan, the reunions with the “Gang of Four” range from startling and heartening to disturbing. Nick’s company is a constant support, though neither of them are prepared for the exposure of personal secrets they’d thought long hidden. Dan begins to suspect he’s really looking for a direction in his own life—and the excitement and purpose he craves may be closer to home than a quest with its roots in a boyhood dream.

January 4 – BooksLaidBareBoys, Diverse Reader, The Way She Reads
January 6 – Back Porch Reader
January 11 – Dog-Eared Daydreams, MM Good Book Reviews
January 13 – Making It Happen
January 16 – Scattered Thoughts & Rogue Words
January 23 – Bayou Book Junkie, Wicked Faerie’s Tales & Reviews
January 25 – My Fiction Nook, Bella’s Blog, Alpha Book Club, Book Lovers 4Ever, Jim’s Blog

Author Bio

Clare took the pen name London from the city where she lives, loves, and writes. A lone, brave female in a frenetic, testosterone-fuelled family home, she juggles her writing with the weekly wash, waiting for the far distant day when she can afford to give up her day job as an accountant. She’s written in many genres and across many settings, with novels and short stories published both online and in print. She says she likes variety in her writing while friends say she’s just fickle, but as long as both theories spawn good fiction, she’s happy. Most of her work features male/male romance and drama with a healthy serving of physical passion, as she enjoys both reading and writing about strong, sympathetic and sexy characters.

Clare currently has several novels sulking at that tricky chapter 3 stage and plenty of other projects in mind . . . she just has to find out where she left them in that frenetic, testosterone-fuelled family home.

All the details and free fiction are available at her website. Visit her today and say hello!

Website: http://www.clarelondon.com
Blog: http://clarelondon.livejournal.com
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/clarelondon
Facebook chat: https://www.facebook.com/groups/clarelondoncalling/
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/clare_london
Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/clarelondon
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/author/clarelondon

Giveaway

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A MelanieM Review: The Next Competitor by Keira Andrews

Rating: 4 stars out of 5

If he risks his heart, can he keep his head in the game?

To win gold, figure skater Alex Grady must train harder than the competition morning, noon, and night. He’s obsessed with mastering another quadruple jump, and due to the lack of filter between his mouth and brain, doesn’t have a lot of friends. As for a boyfriend, forget it. So what if he’s still a virgin at twenty? The Olympics are only every four years—everything else can wait. Relationships are messy and complicated anyway, and he has zero room in his life for romance.

So it’s ridiculous when Alex finds himself checking out his boring new training mate Matt Savelli. Calm, collected “Captain Cardboard” is a nice guy, but even if Alex had time to date, Matt’s so not his type. Yet beneath Matt’s wholesome surface, there’s a dirty, sexy man who awakens a desire Alex has never experienced and can’t deny…

The Next Competitor by Keira Andrews was a delightful romance, especially so if you love the world of competitive ice skating. If you are one of those who stay hooked to the screen during the Olympics or the many World Championships watching the amazing athletes skate on the ice for medals and points, then Andrews manages to bring that world and back stage competition to life here in this story along with the romance. I have to admit there were times I wondered which I enjoyed more.

Alex Grady who’s desire to win makes him a less than sterling person to begin with. He evolves, thankfully, as a person as the story moves forward. But I admit to having trouble liking him at first. All his other competitors and fellow skaters, no matter what division they are competing in, came off far better. I liked them all, even Mrs C, Alex’s Russian coach. Every character here felt true, as a believable athlete and person. I enjoyed all the supporting cast, some almost as much as the main couple and wished to have seen more of them, like Kenny, the Japanese skater with so much riding on his shoulders.

The pain and emotional roller coaster that is professional/yes amateur skating world is well done here. One slip on the ice and its over for the year, everything a pair/skater/coach has worked for. How does one handle that? Andrews puts it all down into her story, and lets us feel these skaters pain and loss. As well as the fact that they’re so young too.

Matt and Alex together are adorable. I do hear that there’s lots of “hooking up” during competitions. All those gorgeous bodies and hormones flying. That feels so plausible as part of the story. By the end, they are well on their way to HEA and its wonderful.

Cover art works beautifully for the story and characters.

Sales Link

Book Details:

This new version has been extensively rewritten, updated, and expanded into a new adult romance with explicit on-page sex.

ebook, 2nd Edition: First published in 2010. , 246 pages

Published December 6th 2016 by KA Books
ISBN139781988260136
Edition LanguageEnglish

A Jeri Review: Wolf, in League (Wolf #3) by A.F. Henley

Rating: 4 stars out of 5

I really enjoyed Wolf, WY, the first in the series. If was really focused on just 2 men for the most part, and their story. I looked forward to book 2, Wolf, en Garde, but was mildly disappointed. But I held out hope that book 2 was a bridge to book 3. And it was. On the other hand, you could pretty much read this book as a stand alone if you wanted to.

Wolf, in League, really expands the world that the story is in. The Committee is investigating not only the wolves from the first two books, but also Arius and other vampires. To do this, they send two men to act as a married couple. When the Committee goes to Gavin- a respected geneticist- about this, Gavin also learns that paranormal creatures are real. And he is to live with one of them during this ruse.

Naturally, throw the two main characters together and there are sparks flying. But the characters were interesting and well thought out. And they discover far more sinister things at work in the paranormal world. Gavin and Matthew are thrust into the middle of everything to help save, well, everything.

An interesting and enjoyable story that was fast paced that leaves the possibility of another book- or series- out there.

Cover art works for the book and series.

Sales Links

Less Than Three Press

Book Details:

ebook
Published October 12th 2016 by Less Than Three Press
ISBN139781620048771
Edition LanguageEnglish
URLhttps://afhenley.wordpress.com/wolf-in-league/
SeriesWolf #3

A Paul B Review: Warrior Wolf and His Little Lamb (Pariah Pack #3) by Susan Laine

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

Rhys Gunner has been away from his werewolf pack for some time. Having recently returned from the military, he is given the task from his alpha Max to find new hunting ground for their expanding pack of misfit shifters. With new pups and mates along with outcasts from other groups joining, they need to expand their territory. He stops at Sheppard farm, run but a family of sheep shifters. If nothing else, Rhys can satisfy his sweet tooth at the bakery the Sheppard family runs. The patriarch of the Sheppard family comes in to talk to his wife who is working the bakery. Rhys smells the scent of his mate not coming from Louis but from a handkerchief that he is carrying. Louis tells Rhys that it belongs to his son. Rhys takes off in search of his mate. He finds him in bed—with a woman.

Heath’s introduction to his mate could not have gone worse. In storms this giant of a man while he is fooling around with his girlfriend. Not happy with the interruption, Heath is further dismayed when he figures out his mate is not only male but a wolf shifter. How are a ram and wolf supposed to be mates? And to make matters worse, his girlfriend is getting a crash course of shifters and mating. Heath initially rejects Rhys’s advances but Rhys is determined to win over his “little lamb.” Things become even more complicated when Max demands that Rhys tell the Sheppards that their farm is now part of the werewolf pack lands due to an ancient werewolf law dealing with the property of their mates. While Rhys does not want to go against his alpha, he also doesn’t want to push Heath away just as he is starting to win him over. Rhys decides it may come down to his mate or his pack.

While I have enjoyed Susan Laine’s books in the past, I did not enjoy this one quite as much as her other books that I have read. I think the major problem I had with the book was all the puns using the wolf and sheep motif that are probably used to bring some humor to the book. While using them in moderation is fine, it seemed to me that I was hit over the head with them. Another point that bothered me was the Scooby Doo like ending where the wise old owl mediator solves the problem with Max’s recent behavior. On a side note, this is the third book in the Pariah Pack series but the first one I have read. So the point of Max’s behavior not being normal was sort of lost on me. Having someone say a secondary character in a book is acting strangely is one thing but having read the backstory in a previous book would have helped me connect why Max’s behavior was inconsistent with his past actions. While I have a couple of misgivings about this book, I would be willing to read others in the series.

The cover art by Harris Channing is a decent cover for the book. It has out two protagonists on the top half of the cover while a lone wolf is amongst a sheep herd on the bottom half.

Sales Links

Siren Publishing/Bookstrand

Book Details

EBook, 110 pages

Edition Language: English

Published: March 24, 2016 by Siren Publishing

ISBN: 978-1-68295-134-7

Series: Pariah Pack

An Ali Review: A Collision with Reality (In Like Flynn #1) by Storm Duffy

Rating: 3 stars out of 5

Flynn’s new boss is so hot he can’t wait to get home to tell the chatroom how much he wants Dom’s cock down his throat. By Friday, he’s shared quite a few thoughts on what he’d like his boss to do to him. But he’s not as anonymous as he thinks, and Dom’s intent on disciplining him for breaching company policy on social networking. Dom gives him a choice of put up or shut up: he can play out the fantasy in real life, or he can walk out of the office without a word to HR as long as he never talks that way about Dom again. Flynn chooses “put up”—but he’s forgotten about one of the things he said he wouldn’t mind doing.

This story wasn’t a romance, but that isn’t what I was expecting either. Flynn lets out his fantasies online thinking that no one will ever know. He continues and when he mentions a different coworker his new boss knows exactly who has been making the comments.

I could feel how cocky Flynn was, thinking that he wouldn’t have anything to worry about with his posts. Flynn is blindsided when Dom confronts him, but gets the opportunity to play out his fantasies. I liked Dom putting the experience in perspective to thin Flynn in the end. I’m interested to read more in this series to see what else Flynn gets up to.

Cover art by Natasha Snow is nice and gives great visuals of the characters.

Sales Links:

Nine Star Press

Book Details:

ebook, 7100 words

Published: January 2, 2017 by Nine Star Press

Edition Language: English

Series: In Like Flynn #1

A Jeri Review: Death Dancer (Dangerous Dancers #2) by Tara Lain

Rating: 4 stars out of 5

Normally I am not a big fan of mysteries or murder mysteries. But couple it with a romance AND an author I enjoy- sign me up. To top it off, it is set in the ballet world. Second only to baseball for me.

Valentin is a professional ballet dancer earning his dues and wanting the lead he feels he deserves, but the current lead isn’t giving up his spot.

Andrew meets Val when one of the dancers from the corp turns up dead. He isn’t the first and likely isn’t to be the last. Andrew and Val are immediately drawn to each other. But then Valentin’s rival is the next dead body and Val himself is the prime suspect.

The heat and chemistry between Andrew and Val is off the charts! I really liked seeing their relationship develop while also dealing with these murders and Valentin being a suspect.

The supporting characters were great- loved Andrew’s work partner. She cracked me up with her straight talk. The supporting dance characters were very typical of the dance world. The literal and figurative prima donnas, the corp members desperately trying to get ahead and their near hero worship of those who are principals.

The mystery itself was done really well. A nice twist or two kept me turning the pages to see “whodunit”.

This is the second in the series but easily read as a stand alone.

Cover art is wonderful.

Sales Links

Pride Publishing | AMAZON | B&N | Kobo

Book Details:

ebook, 199 pages
Published November 1st 2016 by Pride Publishing
Original TitleDeath Dancer
ISBN 1786515172 (ISBN13: 9781786515179)
Edition LanguageEnglish

Series Dangerous Dancers:

Release Blitz Tour – Suki Fleet’s Light Up The Dark (giveaway)

Light Up The Dark – Suki Fleet

Buy Links: Amazon US | Amazon UK

Cover Design: Natasha Snow

Blurb

For two years Nicky has wandered the dark empty corridors of the overgrown Thorn Hall, unseen and untouched, feeling like a ghost. His only company, the cold man who promised to keep him safe from harm, Lance.

But when Lance dies, Nicky’s assurance of safety disintegrates and his world suddenly becomes a lot more real and a lot more dangerous. Scared to leave the house, Nicky longs for daylight. He employs a gardener to clear the over-grown bushes and vines that have nearly swallowed Thorn Hall whole.

The last thing Nicky expects a little light to do is show him something to fight for.

Eighteen months in a young offenders’ institute has taught Cai two things: he occupies the playful puppy end of the How Dangerous Are You? spectrum, and he has an unfortunate knack for being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Desperate for a job, he takes the first offer he gets. Even though Thorn Hall creeps the hell out of him and he barely knows one end of a pair of garden shears from the other.

Things start to fall apart when Cai is drawn into Nicky’s strange world of sticky notes and secrets. Cai finds he is now a target, blamed for a crime he didn’t commit. Desperate not to go back to prison, he digs deep and risks all the good things in life to help Nicky run.

But now Nicky has someone he wants to protect, he knows he can’t run any more.