A MelanieM Release Day Review: Cemeteries by Moonlight (States of Love) by Hunter Frost

Rating: 4 stars out of 5

When a serious bout of writer’s block threatens to delay mystery author Drew Daniels’s newest book, his aunt offers her New Orleans apartment in the heart of the French Quarter as a writing retreat. She neglects to mention that it’s occupied by the enigmatic and sexy Finn Murphy, a cemetery tour guide with a penchant for Victorian attire and a Cajun accent.

A body discovered in an open crypt forces reclusive Drew to deal with Finn’s eccentric group of friends and his underlying attraction to the hot Cajun—despite warnings about Finn’s violent past. Drew might write this stuff, but he’s never had to solve a real-life murder. With a deadline looming and a killer on the loose, this retreat is proving to be anything but helpful for Drew’s novel. Drew can only hope he won’t end up a tragic tale for the Ghostly Legends & Lore, Inc. haunted tour.

Dreamspinner Press has a wonderful thing going with these new series (World of Love, States of Love, Perchance to Dream) its started featuring different authors and an umbrella theme. Here in Cemeteries by Moonlight (States of Love) by Hunter Frost its the States of Love series (a favorite of mine) and a new author, Hunter Frost. Hunter Frost is down in New Orleans and Louisiana for a tale of romance, mystery and yes, murder. All wrapped up in 108 pages. I have to admit I fell under this author’s spell quite easily.

Frost has a love for this lush, historic city and it oozes out of her tale, Cemeteries by Moonlight. Full of New Orleans places, and details, yet the story never feels like its encumbered by the City’s own past, more supported and embraced by it. Drew Daniels is certainly in need of it as he has writer’s block. He’s an interesting character, with a disability (Tourettes) I have only seen one other time in a M/M story. Its handled perfectly here, and you accept it and Drew as a complete whole as you should. Drew is so well drawn that he comes complete with a father you wish to get to know better as well as a home town of Baltimore. He’s the real deal. More of a shadow figure? Finn Murphy. I loved Finn, but parts of Finn remain nebulous all the way to the end. This was either due to the lack of length or perhaps Frost is intending to add on a sequel (my personal hope for this story). There were still so many questions in my mind about Finn and his history.

There is of course, a mystery or two that plays out here, a killer on the loose, and a relationship that’s evolving. Frost twines them all together using the streets and history of New Orleans and just the right hint of the paranormal to spice things up.

I loved the identity of the killer, made perfect sense. I just wished for a little more investigation, more phone calls from dad (a police connection), more aha! moments. This story really deserves them, its so good.

I hope that the author revisits this world and couple again. Why leave it at one mystery to solve? Why not more? I think Drew and Finn have something here…lets investigate it!

Cover art by AngstyG is perfection. This artist nails it every time.

Sales Links

Book Details:

ebook, 108 pages
Expected publication: January 18th 2017 by Dreamspinner Press
ISBN 1635332435 (ISBN13: 9781635332438)
Edition LanguageEnglish
SeriesStates of Love settingLouisiana (United States)

A Stella Release Day Review: Permanent Ink by Jaime Samms

Rating: 3.25 stars out of 5

Permanent Ink by Jaime Samms, released by Dreamspinner Press, is a second edition, I haven’t read the first one so I’m not sure how much or if it was revisited. I usually like what the author writes so I was really curious about this new to me novella. Plus “opposite attracts” is a trope I truly love in my books.

I found Permanent Ink to be a good story. The characters were well developed considering the length of the novella, just sixty pages. I particularly liked the secondary characters, Angel and Jack, the little scenes with Angel’s mum. All of them were what friends and family are supposed to be, the love they shared is pure and strong.

There were a couple of things that kept me from rating the story more than 3.25 stars. First of all I would have preferred to have Dwayne POV too. Eric’s one wasn’t enough. I struggled understanding what was going on in Dwayne mind and his POV would have helped me a lot. For example to actually see the desire they seemed to have for each other. In fact apart from the sexual parts, did they like each other? Did they want to be together? I had no idea what they were feeling. A couple of”I love you” spoken in the epilogue didn’t satisfy me at all. I wanted more from the MCs and sadly I didn’t get it.

That said, Permanent Ink is a good story, well written from one of my favorite authors. It just misses the fire that make me really love a book.

The cover art by AngstyG is awesome, it caught my attention and together to the author name, brought me to be interested in the story, I wasn’t even interested in the blurb.

Sales Links

Book Details:

ebook, 2nd Edition, 63 pages
Expected publication: January 18th 2017 by Dreamspinner Press (first published February 1st 2011)
ISBN 1634777794 (ISBN13: 9781634777797)
Edition LanguageEnglish

A VVivacious Release Day Review: In Your Court (World of Love) by Reece Pine

Rating – 1 Star out of 5

Regan a.k.a Ray is in Ho Chi Minh City (a.ka. Saigon), Vietnam as a volunteer basketball coach at the Ho Chi Minh Central Crane School for a week. But this week is also Ray’s goodbye to a sport he has loved for too long but is now unable to play because of his crippling back ache. So for one week he is going to play through the pain and when the week ends he plans to curl up and pay for it. He has everything worked out but what he didn’t take into account was falling in love, unfortunately a distance as large as the Pacific Ocean isn’t going to be easy to ignore.

Have you read the blurb for this story? If you haven’t, read it, it is painfully accurate and also 80% of the story.

The book is written in a lingo which as the book is written entirely from Ray’s perspective translates into I have no idea why Ray thinks and talks like this.

This story is extremely disjointed and vague. It is so vague that having read it I still have no idea what Xin does for a living, why or how Ray was in Saigon and also who both these characters actually are. I mean yes the story does inform us about these things but if you stop and think about it you will be completely befuddled. Let’s take Xin’s job for example he tells us in many words that he is a glorified translator but later on we find out that he matches companies with tax-deductible sponsorship opportunities, makes connections, talks to a lot of people and since he speaks multiple languages he translates for his father, but in all this mess of words I still don’t know in any concrete sense what it was Xin does for a job and how that translated in him being in Vietnam coincidentally on the first day of Ray’s stay there. Also if volunteers other than Ray had been there in Crane School, why the hell did they need a translator for Ray when they had managed without one before?

Basically the story seems to make no sense. Things seem to happen just because they are planned to happen that way and the strings calling the shots are not so invisible. I couldn’t for the life of me understand Ray’s motivations or what he wanted from life and that is despite being in his head all the time so it was almost impossible to get a grasp on Xin, he might has well have been an alien. Also while Ray’s condition is one of the only things in this book that is spelt out, while the science made sense, I had no idea how the disease translated to Ray and his life.

One of the aspects of this book was the culture shock. The author talks about the differences in culture but the problem was that at no point in the story did the differences seem to end at no point in the story was there the realization that we are all just people no matter how different, in fact the differences just seemed to be building on till they became almost insurmountable.

The first half of the story which is the part in Crane School adds absolutely nothing to the story. The story actually doesn’t start till Ray’s obligations with the school are over so technically Ray and Xin fall in love over 3 days, the worst part is I would have accepted it if it was written in a convincing matter but yeah that never happened.

I just can’t understand why Xin and Ray fell in love. They have nothing together that would equate a good relationship and they have no chemistry. The first sex scene in this story is around the 60% mark and it was the slowest sex scene in history, the scene spans 10 plus pages and was just so boring, why, just why was this so long and so detailed. Unfortunately the subsequent sex scenes were no improvement.

One of the reasons I picked up this book was that I thought this book would focus more on the relationship between Xin and Ray and would centre around their decision to stay together despite odds and I was hoping we would get to see them take a leap of fate as they rearrange their lives around being together but that was a pitiful 5% of this book and the answer was a yes without any thought, planning, knowledge or understanding.

If you ask me just skip this book the only pleasure I got from this book was when I was pounding my frustration into this review. The characters are vague, they story makes no sense and the blurb reveals all there is to know.

Cover Art by Garrett Leigh. I liked the cover but the guy on the cover fits no description of Xin’s and I’m pretty sure that is not supposed to be Ray.

Sales Links

Book Details:

ebook, 120 pages
Expected publication: January 18th 2017 by Dreamspinner Press
ISBN 1635332249 (ISBN13: 9781635332247)
Edition LanguageEnglish
SeriesWorld of Love settingVietnam

A Caryn Release Day Review: The Mighty Have Fallen by Bonnie Dee

Rating: 2.5 out of 5 stars

The book opens up with Trevor Rowland quoting the Bible (because I am a nerd, I looked it up, Samuel 1:25, KJV) “How are the mighty fallen in the midst of battle!” referring to himself. He had been a wealthy, celebrated stage actor when he suffered a stroke that left him completely blind. To add insult to injury, while he was still in rehabilitation his boyfriend ran away after emptying their bank accounts, and Trevor found that he had been swindling him all along. Trevor is feeling pretty low – he used to have it all, and now he’s disabled, poor, and feeling like an ass for not recognizing that his boyfriend was so shallow and dishonest. He is depressed, angry, bored, scared, and frustrated.

The same page introduces Jack Burrows, a blue-collar East Ender who moved in with Trevor one month ago mostly to split the rent, but partly to help Trevor out with household chores. He is almost annoyingly optimistic and cheery, and has decided it is his mission to get Trevor to find meaning in his new life. He does so by suggesting that Trevor look into doing voice-overs, and amateur drag queen performance. Which Trevor immediately does and his attitude and his life turn around almost instantly.

So at this point, I was already sitting back and considering the story very detachedly, because it felt forced and awkward. The reader is dropped into the story literally at the moment that Trevor is transforming his life, so the backstory is all told instead of shown and I wasn’t convinced. I also did not feel the realities of losing one’s sight as an adult was portrayed very realistically – Trevor usually acted like a sighted person, so when the cane actually was mentioned it seemed intrusive. I recently read Running Blind, by Kim Fielding and Venona Keyes, and that portrayal of a man who lost his sight (also from a stroke, imagine that) was much more credible. Then there was the insta-love aspect – I really hate insta-love because I think it is a cop-out so an author can avoid plot and characterization – although I know that is not unusual for this author. I was dubious about the whole business of Trevor doing a drag show, despite the extensive monologues about how it equated with his previous career and why the music he chose to lip-sync was so meaningful. Jack’s character was too perfect, and though the accent did help to bring his voice to life for me, it slipped frequently (for an amazing example of the accent done well, and the contrast between posh and uncultured voices, read Glitterland by Alexis Hall)

When I realized that I was comparing this book to others just to see how it fell short, I knew it was going to be a miss for me. The conflict before the happy ending was the usual misunderstanding blown out of proportion – so overused – and the drag show, which should have been a pinnacle of the story, was unimpressive.

Cover art by Bree Archer is nice but way too dramatic for this story.

Sales Links

Book Details:

ebook, 112 pages
Expected publication: January 18th 2017 by Dreamspinner Press
ISBN 1635332370 (ISBN13: 9781635332377)
Edition LanguageEnglish

Kim Fielding on Rocky Horror and her release Love is Heartless (Love Can’t Series #2) (guest post and giveaway)

Love is Heartless (Love Can’t Series #2) by Kim Fielding

Dreamspinner Press
Cover art by Brooke Albrecht

Available for Purchase at

Scattered Thoughts and Rogue Words is happy to host Kim Fielding here today. Welcome, Kim!

Kim Fielding on Rocky Horror!

It’s just a jump to the left….

When I was in high school—back when dinosaurs roamed the Earth—my friends and I used to go to The Rocky Horror Picture Show. It was playing at the Clinton Street Theater in Southeast Portland (where it began playing in 1978 and still shows every Saturday night!), which was way across town from our suburb. But we’d pile into vehicles and make our way across the city. Sometimes we dressed up (that’s me, far left, as Janet). Sometimes after the movie we’d go to Carrow’s for coffee and cinnamon rolls.

What was the appeal of Rocky Horror? Well, participation was fun. I still remember all the lyrics and callbacks. Rocky himself was awfully sexy in his little gold Speedos, and Tim Curry as Frank-N-Furter was perfection. And of course it was cool to stay out really late. More than that, though, I think the film spoke to those of who were… different. The crowd at the Clinton Street wasn’t made up of the cool kids—the jocks and the preppies and the cheerleaders. Sitting in the audience were boys who liked to wear girls’ clothes, people of all shapes and sizes and eccentricities. At Rocky, nobody shunned us for being weird. We’d stand out in the cold, waiting for the theater to let us in, and for that time we were colleagues. For suburban teens in the early eighties, Rocky was subversive.

Life went on. I grew up, moved away, found my own place in the world. But Rocky still has a place in my heart. So when a local theater had a midnight showing this summer—outdoors—I took my 16-year-old daughter. We sang along and tossed playing cards and had a wonderful time. The venue was sold out, some of the audience members ancient like me but many of them younger, and it was a blast. Rocky still speaks to the eccentric, I think.

In my newest book, Love Is Heartless, Colin takes Nevin on an impromptu date to Rocky. At the Clinton Street Theater, in fact. Colin loves musical theatre anyway, so he’s a fan from way back. But Nevin had a hardscrabble childhood and an adulthood without much whimsy, so this will be his first time.

Are you a Rocky fa-an? Which character is your favorite?

Blurb

Small but mighty—that could be Detective Nevin Ng’s motto. Now a dedicated member of the Portland Police Bureau, he didn’t let a tough start in life stop him from protecting those in need. He doesn’t take crap from anyone, and he doesn’t do relationships. Until he responds to the severe beating of a senior citizen and meets the victim’s wealthy, bow-tied landlord.

Property manager and developer Colin Westwood grew up with all the things Nevin never had, like plenty of money and a supportive, loving family. Too supportive, perhaps, since his childhood illness has left his parents unwilling to admit he’s a strong, grown man. Colin does do relationships, but they never work out. Now he’s thinking maybe he won’t just go with the flow. Maybe it’s time to try something more exciting. But being a witness to a terrible crime—or two—was more than he bargained for.

Despite their differences, Colin and Nevin discover that the sparks fly when they’re together. But sparks are short-lived, dampened by the advent of brutal crimes, and Colin and Nevin have seemingly little in common. The question is whether they have the heart to build something lasting.

Buy links:

Dreamspinner Press

Find Kim!

Website: http://www.kfieldingwrites.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/KFieldingWrites/

Twitter: @KFieldingWrites

Author bio:

Kim Fielding is the bestselling author of numerous m/m romance novels, novellas, and short stories. Like Kim herself, her work is eclectic, spanning genres such as contemporary, fantasy, paranormal, and historical. Her stories are set in alternate worlds, in 15th century Bosnia, in modern-day Oregon. Her heroes are hipster architect werewolves, housekeepers, maimed giants, and conflicted graduate students. They’re usually flawed, they often encounter terrible obstacles, but they always find love.

After having migrated back and forth across the western two-thirds of the United States, Kim calls the boring part of California home. She lives there with her husband, her two daughters, and her day job as a university professor, but escapes as often as possible via car, train, plane, or boat. This may explain why her characters often seem to be in transit as well. She dreams of traveling and writing full-time.

Giveaway

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In Our New Release Spotlight: Afraid to Fly (Anchor Point #2) by L.A. Witt (excerpt and giveaway)

Afraid to Fly (Anchor Point #2) by L.A. Witt
Riptide Publishing
Cover Artist L.C. Chase

Read an Excerpt/Buy It Here At Riptide Publishing

Scattered Thoughts and Rogue Words is happy to be hosting L.A. Witt today on her Afraid to Fly tour. Welcome, L.A.!

Welcome to the Riptide Publishing/L. A. Witt blog tour for Afraid to Fly, the second book in the Anchor Point series!

Every comment on this blog tour enters you in a drawing for a choice of two eBooks off my backlist (excluding Afraid to Fly) and a $10 Riptide Publishing store credit. Entries close at midnight, Eastern time, on January 22^nd, and winners will be announced on January 23^rd. Contest is NOT restricted to U.S. entries.

Excerpt

(Clint)

Thanks to skipping lunch, I was able to slip out of the office around four thirty. Travis was held up for a while because he had a meeting with the CO, but about ten minutes before I got home, he texted me to let me know he was on his way.

While I waited for him, I couldn’t sit still. I’d showered and changed into a pair of jeans and a T-shirt, and now all there was to do was wait. And wait. And try to keep myself calm and cool.

Why isn’t he here yet? He should’ve been here five minutes ago.

Did he remember how to get here? Wait, I’d given him my address, and his car had GPS. He’d find the place. Right? Did I need to text him with my apartment number?

What the hell is wrong with me?

And then . . .

Footsteps on the walkway.

The distinct sound of boots.

Fuck yes.

I opened the door right as he stepped onto the porch. Neither of us said a word. He hooked his fingers in my waistband and pulled me in close, and we were back in each other’s arms. We kissed. Stumbled. Somehow made it off the porch and into the apartment without falling on our asses, and I was so tangled up in him, I couldn’t even remember for sure if we’d closed the door.

I opened my eyes briefly. Glanced past him.

Yep. Door was closed.

Where were we?

I cradled the back of his head and kissed him even harder.

“Sorry I took so long,” he panted against my lips. “Fucking traffic through the gate.”

“’S’okay. You made it.”

“Finally.”

“Mm-hmm.”

His hands slid across my bare skin, emphasizing how dressed he still was. That wouldn’t do. This uniform needed to be on the floor right now.

He must’ve had the same idea, because we both started fumbling with buttons. One by one, they gave. I pushed the blouse off his shoulders.

“By the way,” I said as I ran my hands up the front of his snug T-shirt, “one more hour at work, and I would’ve run out of military bearing.”

“You and me both,” he said between kisses, and slid his hands down over my ass. “Today was killing me. Even before you showed up in my office.”

“Tell me about it.” I started kissing my way down his neck. “You didn’t have to stand up in front of a class and try not to get a hard-on.”

He laughed, tilting his head to the side as I inched toward his collarbone. “Maybe I should’ve teased you a bit more.”

“That wouldn’t have been a good idea.” I bit his shoulder through his clothes, and he responded with the most delicious groan.

“Not a good idea?” He pressed against my dick. “Why not? What would’ve happened?”

“All kinds of . . . court-martial-worthy . . . offenses.” I groaned softly. “On government property.”

“More than what we already did?”

“So much more.”

“Hmm. Scandalous.” He dipped his head and kissed my neck. “Might have to step up my game at work. See what happens when you lose all your—”

“Don’t you dare,” I growled.

“Or what?”

“I’ll tell the CO.” I curved my hands over his ass. “Tell her you seduced me in my office.” I kissed beneath his jaw and murmured, “Tell her I was . . . helpless to resist . . . your charm.”

We both broke out laughing.

“Go ahead and tell her,” he said. “I won’t deny it.”

“Shameless bastard.”

About Afraid to Fly

Once a fearless fighter pilot, Commander Travis Wilson is now confined to a desk. It’s been eight years since the near-fatal crash that grounded him, and it still rules his life thanks to relentless back pain.

Lieutenant Commander Clint Fraser almost drowned in a bottle after a highly classified catastrophe while piloting a drone. His downward spiral cost him his marriage and kids, but he’s sober now and getting his life back on track. He’s traded drones for a desk, and he’s determined to reconcile with his kids and navigate the choppy waters of PTSD.

Clint has been on Travis’s radar ever since he transferred to Anchor Point. When Clint comes out to his colleagues, it’s a disaster, but there’s a silver lining: now that Travis knows Clint is into men, the chemistry between them explodes.

It’s all fun and games until emotions get involved. Clint’s never been in love with a man before. Travis has, and a decade later, that tragic ending still haunts him. Clint needs to coax him past his fear of crashing and burning again, or their love will be grounded before takeoff.

Afraid to Fly is available January 16^th from Riptide Publishing.

This title is #2 of the Anchor Point series.

About L.A. Witt

L.A. Witt is an abnormal M/M romance writer who has finally been released from the purgatorial corn maze of Omaha, Nebraska, and now spends her time on the southwestern coast of Spain. In between wondering how she didn’t lose her mind in Omaha, she explores the country with her husband, several clairvoyant hamsters, and an ever-growing herd of rabid plot bunnies. She also has substantially more time on her hands these days, as she has recruited a small army of mercenaries to search South America for her nemesis, romance author Lauren Gallagher, but don’t tell Lauren. And definitely don’t tell Lori A. Witt or Ann Gallagher. Neither of those twits can keep their mouths shut…

Website: http://www.gallagherwitt.com

Twitter: https://twitter.com/GallagherWitt

Giveaway

To celebrate the release of Afraid to Fly, one lucky winner will receive $10 in Riptide Publishing credit and two books of choice from L.A. Witt’s backlist! Leave a comment with your contact info to enter the contest. Entries close at midnight, Eastern time, on January 21, 2017. Contest is NOT restricted to U.S. entries. Thanks for following the tour, and don’t forget to leave your contact info!

A Lila Audiobook Review: Undercover Boyfriend by Jacob Z. Flores and Rusty Topsfield (Narrator)

Rating: 4.5 stars out of 5

Two men, one lie, and a whole bunch of trouble.

Marty Valdez is in serious trouble. His sister’s wedding is around the corner, and everyone expects to meet Marty’s super-successful underwear model boyfriend – whom Marty invented. Now Marty has to produce a half-naked hottie or suffer the worst humiliation of his life.

FBI agent Luke Myers is in serious trouble. He’s been working undercover to take down a dangerous drug cartel, but his cover’s blown and he needs to disappear. Luckily, a geeky yet intriguing comic book artist gives him the perfect opportunity. Luke just has to pretend to be his boyfriend, and pretending is what he does best. But between Marty’s mother and his ex, Luke might’ve bitten off more than he can chew, and Marty’s knack for finding trouble might ruin more than just his sister’s wedding.

Undercover Boyfriend is one of my favorites in the Dreamspun Desires series. The plot seems simple from the start, but the author did an excellent job adding to it as the story moved forward. It balances the romance and the mystery well even when the reader can guess who the antagonist is and what would happen next.

I love Marty and Luke, separately and as a couple. They’re easy characters to fall for. I kept wishing for everything to go right for them even when this series guarantees a HEA. They’re sweet and over-the-top, but it worked with the character and plot building in the story. It’s great to see how protective of Marty Luke is from the very beginning. And how much compassion Marty has for Luke when they first met.

As I mentioned, the mystery is as important as the romance. It brings to different characters together and continues to build up to the very end. The reader can connect the dots, but it doesn’t take from the story itself. The slow build goes beyond the main characters. It includes every scene in the story.

The secondary characters are as good as the principals and I hope we get to see some of the guys later in the series. Marty’s mom and sister were perfect. Everyone, even the villain, had a reason to take part of the story. There are a lot of coincidences to make the story shine, but in the end, we get another good book by this author.

I like Rusty Topsfield narration. It complimented the story’s soap opera feel. He did an excellent job emphasizing the characterization and making Marty and his family feel realistic.

The cover by Bree Archer matches the rest of the series and gives the reader a nice visual of Luke’s appearance. Adapted to audiobook format.

Sales Links: Dreamspinner | Audible | iTunes

Audiobook Details:

Narrator: Rusty Topsfield
Length: 5 hours and 51 minutes

Published: August 9, 2016 (Audio Edition) by Dreamspinner Press
ASIN: B01JVMUDAY

Edition Language: English

Series: One Fine Day
Book #1: Undercover Boyfriend
Book #2: Suddenly Yours

An Ali Audiobook Review: Winter Oranges by Marie Sexton and Nick J. Russo (Narrator)

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

Jason Walker is a child star turned teen heartthrob turned reluctant B-movie regular who’s sick of his failing career. So he gives up Hollywood for northern Idaho, far away from the press, the drama of LA, and the best friend he’s secretly been in love with for years.

There’s only one problem with his new life: a strange young man only he can see is haunting his guesthouse. Except Benjamin Ward isn’t a ghost. He’s a man caught out of time, trapped since the Civil War in a magical prison where he can only watch the lives of those around him. He’s also sweet, funny, and cute as hell, with an affinity for cheesy ’80s TV shows. And he’s thrilled to finally have someone to talk to.

But Jason quickly discovers that spending all his time with a man nobody else can see or hear isn’t without its problems—especially when the tabloids find him again and make him front-page news. The local sheriff thinks he’s on drugs, and his best friend thinks he’s crazy. But Jason knows he hasn’t lost his mind. Too bad he can’t say the same thing about his heart.

This book takes a certain level of dispensing with reality. I mean…..person trapped in a snow globe. Once you get past that though this is a sweet tale of friendship and then romance. The two men are both extremely lonely in their own ways. Neither has had anyone to love them in a long time and they’re both in serious need of that. Of course things don’t go smoothly. (People generally think you’re crazy when you carry a snow globe with you everywhere and talk to someone no one else can see.) True love wins in the end though.

I thought the story was well written. The pacing was good and both of the main characters were enjoyable. I found myself rooting for them both and was happy when they got their happily ever after. This was creatively done story and while part of it takes place at Christmas I wouldn’t necessarily consider it a Christmas story. It’s a read you could enjoy year round.

This was narrated by Nick J Russo and I thought it was done very well. I typically enjoy this author a lot and this was no exception. He did all of the voices well and I never had a hard time telling the difference between the two MC’s.

Cover by L.C. Chase: I like the cover. It is nicely done and captures the essence of the story very well.

Sales Links

Riptide Publishing

Audible, Amazon, iTunes

Book Details:

Audio release: December 7, 2016

Twenty percent of the proceeds from this title will be donated to the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender (GLBT) National Help Center.

Founded in 1996, the GLBT National Help Center is a non-profit organization that provides vital peer-support, community connections and resource information to people with questions regarding sexual orientation and/or gender identity. Utilizing a diverse group of GLBT volunteers, they operate two national hotlines, the GLBT National Hotline and the GLBT National Youth Talkline, as well as private, volunteer one-to-one online chat, that help both youth and adults with coming-out issues, safer-sex information, school bullying, family concerns, relationship problems and a lot more.

To learn more about this charity or to donate directly, please visit their website: http://www.glbthotline.org/

In the New Release Spotlight: Marina Ford on ‘Lovesick’ (Dreamspinner Press author guest blog)

Lovesick by Marina Ford
Dreamspinner Press

Cover Artist: Alexandria Corza

Available for Purchase at

Also at Dreamspinner Press in Paperback

Scattered Thoughts and Rogue Words is happy to host Marina Ford here today. Welcome, Marina!

Hi, I’m Marina, and I want to introduce you to my debut novel “Lovesick.” It’s the story of a university lecturer, Leo, who is based in London, and who spent the last couple of years mooning after a colleague of his, who disappoints all of Leo’s hopes by getting engaged. The story of how Leo recovers from this blow, how he finds love and friendship, and how he becomes a better person in the process, is told in the form of a diary.

It’s the only book I’ve ever written in this form, and it was an interesting challenge. Normally, chapters give you, the writer, a framework for how to organise your plot points. But diary entries are not like chapters. Stories, friendships, issues don’t evolve, usually, within the span of a day. While most novels (written either in the first person or third person perspective) involve a certain level of foreknowledge by the narrator, and therefore allow you to bring up things that will later become important, diaries have to seem like they are written a day at a time, and so if you, as the writer, want something mentioned that may later become important but feels innocuous or meaningless to begin with, you have to think of clever ways of including them.

The decision to convey Leo’s story in the form of a diary was mostly dictated by the type of story I wanted to tell. Since Leo’s perspective, and especially his flaws which this perspective exposes, are part of his arc, it made sense to tell his story in a way that revealed Leo to the reader, that might not be obvious to Leo himself. The diary form allowed me to present a ‘slice-of-life’ novel in a way that didn’t feel like I was cluttering the reader’s mind with irrelevant detail. The things Leo notices in his day-to-day life, which he thinks are worthy of being mentioned in his diary, tell us often more about Leo than they do about anything else. His wry observations about his neighbours, his work, his family and his friends serve not just to make us aware of the world around him, but mostly to unravel the way Leo sees the world – and eventually it allows us to monitor his growth and progress as a human being.

I had great fun writing this book. It was a labour of love from start to finish. I hope this comes through while reading it. It’s meant to be funny, light and romantic. I hope it’s as enjoyable to read as it was to write.

Blurb

Friday, 23 January

The cat funeral.

Yeah, that happened today. I went and participated in—aided and abetted?—a cat funeral.

London life is tough on idealists. In an ideal world, after years of flirtation, Leo would be cosily settled down with Jack, his long-time crush. In an ideal world, Jack wouldn’t now be engaged to a woman. And in an ideal world, Leo would move on.

When handsome new neighbour Alex moves in opposite Leo, an opportunity to do so presents itself. But Alex is probably straight, working class, and poorer than Leo. While Jack’s engagement unravels, and Leo’s friendship with Alex deepens, will Leo manage to find happiness with the right man? Or will he succumb to his enemies: self-doubt, family expectations, and pride?

Told in diary form, this is both the story of a love triangle in London and the chronicle of a man’s struggles to confront his self-image and overcome his insecurity.

Author bio:

Marina Ford is a thirty-year-old book addict, who would, if permitted, spend all of her time in bookstores, libraries, or in her own bed with stacks and stacks of books. Luckily, she has a husband and a dog who force her to interact with humans of planet Earth from time to time. In fact, she so enjoyed falling in love with her husband that she can’t resist evoking those same feelings in the love stories she creates in her head. She does not believe in love at first sight— but she does believe in Happy Ever After, though it must be earned. She likes her stories to be light and frothy, since real life can be miserable enough without making up more of it in fiction. She lives in England, loves rain (gives one an excuse to stay at home and read books, right?), long walks (when it doesn’t rain), history, love stories, classical literature, pulpy literature, Jane Austen, languages, and dogs. It is her dream to one day possess an enormous country house in which each room is a library (okay, maybe except for the kitchen), and in which there are more dogs than people. A smaller and perhaps more realistic dream of hers is to make people smile with the things she writes.

A Stella Release Day Review: By The Numbers (By the Numbers #1) by Chris Owen and Tory Temple

Rating: 4 stars out of 5

Deuce is coming home from work and find his apartment on fire. His first thought is to Q, his very pregnant dog. Luckily Trey,the hot fireman, has saved her. From that moment,a new friendship and lately more will born between deuce and Trey.

By The Numbers by Chris Owens and Tory Temple was a success to me this second time too. I remembered this story, I bought it when it was first published some years ago. I read a lot and if I remind a book, it means it really impressed me in a positive way.
That’s why I requested this second edition, I was curious to see how it was changed and how (or if) my tastes were changed too. Well I still loved it.

I liked Deuce a lot, how joyous and enthusiastic he was, how caring he was of Q and her puppies, the way he approached life and its difficult times, always with an easiness hard to find around.

I loved how Trey and Deuce became first friends, knew each other; of course the attraction was there since they met but it was measured and the authors left space to the knowing part first, not to the chemistry. That said there were a lot of sex scenes and they were really hot. There were a lot of puppies, adorable and messy as only puppies could be.

There was some child time and some adult time, even at the fire station.

By The Numbers by Chris Owens and Tory Temple is a light and quick read, cute and well done. I adored it and I feel to highly recommend it.

Cover Artist: Maria Fanning. Cover is adorable.

Sales Links

Book Details:

ebook, 2nd Edition, 143 pages
Expected publication: January 16th 2017 by Dreamspinner Press, LLC (first published September 27th 2011)
ISBN 1635332311 (ISBN13: 9781635332315)
Edition LanguageEnglish

SeriesBy the Numbers #1

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Love is Heartless (Love Can’t Series #2) by Kim Fielding

Dreamspinner Press Cover art by Brooke Albrecht

Available for Purchase at

Kim Fielding on Rocky Horror!

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Afraid to Fly (Anchor Point #2) by L.A. Witt Riptide Publishing Cover Artist L.C. Chase

Excerpt

About Afraid to Fly

About L.A. Witt

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Lovesick by Marina Ford Dreamspinner Press

Cover Artist: Alexandria Corza

Available for Purchase at

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Dreamspinner Press
Cover art by Brooke Albrecht

Afraid to Fly (Anchor Point #2) by L.A. Witt
Riptide Publishing
Cover Artist L.C. Chase

Lovesick by Marina Ford
Dreamspinner Press