Category: Science Fiction

A BJ Review: Junk Mage by Elliot Cooper

Rating:    4 stars out of 5

Junk MageWhen technomancer Quillian Defote crash-lands on remote planet Marutuk, he has limited time to repair his ship and get off world. If he fails, he’ll forfeit his position as professor of mechanical transmutation at the prestigious Ivy Arcanarium and ruin his employment prospects in yet another sector.

Hunter, a cyborg guarding a junkyard that holds what Quill needs, is charmed by the wayward mage and wants to help him. But Hunter is bound by honor to dutifully guard his mistress and her possessions, no matter how cruelly she treats him.

Together Quill and Hunter stand a chance of starting a new life together if carnivorous wildlife, a violent necromancer, and stubborn pride don’t keep them apart.

For the first bit, I wasn’t sure if I was going to like this story. It took me a while to get into it and begin to care about the characters and fully understand all that was going on. However, that changed for me at the thirty percent or so mark.

Really excellent world-building especially for such a short novella. It’s actually science fiction, but for some reason it almost reads like outer space steampunk sorta. This world is intricate and has a TON of potential, and I wish this story had been longer in order to explore more and really do it justice.

However, even in this short length, we get lots of interesting creatures, magic, computer tech, cyborgs, just all sorts of fun stuff. There was a ton of potential, but I couldn’t quite give it five stars because I felt it ended too soon and could have been filled out a lot more. There are so many ideas, so much going on in this, it could easily have been twice as long I think. As it was, it felt rather rushed due to the length. I found myself longing for more sensuousness, more feels, more UST maybe. But that is just me, a personal taste thing maybe.

Quill is a great character. I enjoyed the type of mage he is… junk mage is a great title. I enjoyed Quill’s rather laid-back attitude. He is nothing like your typical hero. In fact, it seems he’s been rather a screw up in the past due to his attitude. I like how he cared about everyone else even when he was in danger of losing his job and maybe even his life on that strange planet. Despite his predicament, he cared about the dangerous little narl… and the dangerous cyborg with the gun… and even the evil mage who tried to kill them.

Hunter the cyborg was also a great character, and I wanted to know more about him than we were given. Adored how touched he was by the gift of the ereader, his love for books resonated with me. And then when he immediately found the m/m erotica, that was great!

Although there could easily have been a lot of angst in this, there was very little. This didn’t come across as a sweet, flowery romance, neither was it a smoking hot erotic read–there was actually no sex. It was more an imaginative, action-packed story of two men with good hearts finding each other… and then your imagination has to take it from there. Unless there ends up being sequel.  Which would be good, because I could totally see this taking off as a series. Plenty of potential.

And I must mention the hideous narls (bone sucking creatures!). Junior was great. I rather wondered what was going on with him though, like why was he different that the others? Why did he need Quill’s help at one point from a gang of other narls and then turn and face a gang of them to save another smaller narl later on? What had changed? Regardless, the narls were cool. And the thing with the eyes and the goggles, oh my. Loved that.

The cover is nice but I think it may be part of why this read as steampunk to me even though it’s sci-fi. The cover rather screams steampunk for me.

Sales Links

      NineStar Press  

Book Details: 

ebook, 49 pages
Published July 4th 2016 by NineStar Press
ISBN139781911153580
Edition LanguageEnglish
URLhttp://ninestarpress.com/product/junk-mage/

A Barb the Zany Old Lady Review: No Quarter (Bounty #1) by Christine d’Abo

Rating: 4 stars out of 5

NoQuarter_600x900Bounty hunter Gar Stitt is assigned the job of capturing the legendary space pirate Faolan Wolf. But the captor becomes the captive, figuratively, when the two find the heat between them combustible. Though unsuitable, their attraction grows and Gar begins to feel things he’s never even allowed himself to consider before. And when Gar is betrayed by the man who rescued him when his family was killed, Wolf is there to help him as the two embark on a journey of revenge.

But what Gar finds along the way is love—a feeling that he hasn’t felt since he was a young man and he had to identify his dead sister’s body. And Wolf loves him in return, though he’s reluctant to admit it since he knows his days are numbered. Surprises are in store for both men, but they find that together they can overcome the seemingly insurmountable odds.

I was a little nervous when I first started reading this story, as I was informed of a severe beating that occurs in the early part of the book, and I read some negative reviews about it. I took over for a reviewer who couldn’t finish the book but told me what to expect. So with trepidation, I arrived at that point in the story, but I found that my perspective was a bit different from some of the other readers/reviewers, and although I didn’t like what occurred, at that point I could understand why it happened the way it did. By the end of that segment of the book, without realizing it, the characters had captured my interest, and I started to look forward to their story. I definitely need to pass on the warning of graphic violence, however. It is very evident that it will be a trigger to those who do not want to read about it.

On the other hand, once those early scenes were out of the way, the development of the relationship between the men, their pursuit of the man who destroyed Gar’s family, Gar’s reunion with a long-lost family member, the exciting space battles, and the rush against time to find a medication for Wolf make this book a very enjoyable read.

Cover art by Lou Harper shows a single man in the act of disrobing. Bright and colorful, this color scheme carries on throughout the series.

Sales Links:  Riptide Publishing | ARe | Amazon

Book Details:

ebook, Second, 240 pages
Published April 25th 2016 by Riptide Publishing (first published March 31st 2010)
ISBN139781626493995
Edition LanguageEnglish

SeriesBounty #1

Release Day for Priest and Pariahs by Mann Ramblings (excerpt and giveaway)

Priest and Pariahs Banner

Synopsis – Priest and Pariahs

Ship Logs of the Santa Claus, Book Three

Costa McQuillen is a Pariah, a para-human with tech empathic abilities who has escaped from Earth, where being para-human is illegal—and marks him for extermination. Arrogant and standoffish, Costa is unable to trust anyone, but is willing to risk everyone’s safety to reach the planet Omoikane. His best solution: gaining passage on board the Santa Claus.

Arbor Kittering, the crew’s newest coding tech, is a medical oddity. With the technologies available to prevent birth defects, Arbor’s status as a dwarf brings the kind of attention he could happily do without. Having spent a short time in prison for data hacking and falsifying government files doesn’t help. The Santa Claus is his last chance at a new start, if he can decipher the strange malfunctions plaguing the ship.

Priest, the Santa Claus’ Head Pilot, is a bit of a scoundrel. Perpetually single, Priest is attracted to Costa for his exotic looks, and to Arbor for his unique qualities. In truth, he’d like to have both, but it’s clear such a thing isn’t in the cards. Now Priest needs to make a choice, before it’s too late.

Priest and Pariah Cover

Buy Links

Don’t miss the discounted release prices on all retailer sites!

WIP: http://www.waywardinkpublishing.com/product/priest-and-pariahs-by-mann-ramblings/
ARe: https://www.allromanceebooks.com/product-priestandpariahs-2077398-340.html
Amazon US: https://www.amazon.com/Priest-Pariahs-Ship-Santa-Claus-ebook/dp/B01IQ3WIVG/
Amazon UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Priest-Pariahs-Ship-Santa-Claus-ebook/dp/B01IQ3WIVG/
Amazon AU: https://www.amazon.com.au/Priest-Pariahs-Ship-Santa-Claus-ebook/dp/B01IQ3WIVG/
Amazon DE: https://www.amazon.de/Priest-Pariahs-Ship-Santa-Claus-ebook/dp/B01IQ3WIVG/

Excerpt

THE DARKNESS REMINDED him somehow of an unborn child, floating weightless, enveloped by warmth. What would anyone give to fall back into such a simple existence, removed of all need beyond instinctual thought? What a fortunate nine months it would be. What a wonderful life, sleeping and cared for inside the womb, never requiring a voice. All before anyone could teach a soul to love or hate, or something or someone was unwanted.

Is that what was happening here? Had he somehow regressed back before his own infancy? The pangs of jealousy he was experiencing told him no. Sadly, no.

He felt like he’d been slumbering for such a long time, and very, very slowly he was starting to wake. Threads of logical coherence began to tickle his thoughts in the dark. It was not a welcome sensation and he fought to avoid it. Why couldn’t he go back into the lovely silence?

Envy for the ignorance of the unborn rolled through him. How unfair it was to have the innocence of being sequestered and never hearing the taunts of children or comprehending the cries of the intolerant taken away from him. If only he had never heard slurs of hatred or understood what defined a second-class citizen.

What was that sound? Could it be a faint heartbeat in the distant void? It sounded brash and unnatural, refusing to lull him back to sleep like the soothing cadence of a mother’s pulse.

Like a child, he wanted nothing more than to stay safe and warm, but like in every instance, someone always forced a person into the painful light and cold of reality. The darkness parted above him with a soft mechanical hiss. The warmth bled away, making him want to cry.

Daring to open his foggy eyes, he squinted in the artificial light. A woman in a white coat hovered over him.

“Welcome back to the real world,” she said. “Can you tell me your name?”

Book Trailer

Start with Books One and Two of Ship Logs of the Santa Claus!

The Luxorian Fugitive

Luxorian PreviewSergeant Liam Jacks is the security chief of transport vessel, The Santa Claus. He travels the planetary cluster with Marc Danverse, his best friend and captain, seeking to escape his tortured past and find some peace of mind.

Having been through a civil war together, Danverse and Liam are close. Maybe too close….

All that changes when mysterious stranger, Hadrian Jamison, an escaped Adonirati, books passage to Alpha Centauri. Can he be trusted? Can the stories of his past be believed?

As Liam’s fascination with Hadrian grows, jealousy threatens to tear apart his friendship with Danverse.

When Hadrian’s owner shows up, Liam is forced to go against orders in order to launch a rescue mission to save him.

The ensuing conflict may be more than any of them expected.

Buy Links

Amazon US: http://www.amazon.com/Luxorian-Fugitive-Ship-Santa-Claus-ebook/dp/B00V6KO1CG/
Amazon UK:  http://www.amazon.co.uk/Luxorian-Fugitive-Ship-Santa-Claus-ebook/dp/B00V6KO1CG/
Amazon AU:  http://www.amazon.com.au/Luxorian-Fugitive-Ship-Santa-Claus-ebook/dp/B00V6KO1CG/
WIP:  http://www.waywardinkpublishing.com/product/the-luxorian-fugitive-by-mann-ramblings/
ARe: https://www.allromanceebooks.com/product-theluxorianfugitive-1768560-145.html
B&N: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-luxorian-fugitive-mann-ramblings/1121637747?ean=9781925222388

A Cook’s Tale

A Cooks Tale - Mann RamblingsThe trials and tribulations of the crew and passengers of interplanetary transport vessel, The Santa Claus continues in A Cook’s Tale.

After a horrific breakup, Erron Murfin is bitter, homeless, and friendless. When the cook’s position on the Santa Claus presents itself, Erron decides to escape his current circumstances and join the crew. On board he reconnects with family friend Gamin Wells, whose own secrets and issues begin to surface upon Erron’s arrival. The least of which is the reason the pair haven’t laid eyes on one another in over twelve years.

As Erron settles into his new duties, the men on board take an interest in their newest crew member. Among those intrigued by Erron are polyamorous couple, Barrus and James. Despite Erron’s cautious nature, he’s drawn into a triad relationship with the pair.

But there’s something about Gamin…

Is Erron too damaged to confront his own feelings?

Will his past prevent him from finding what he needs?

Buy Links

WIP: http://www.waywardinkpublishing.com/product/a-cooks-tale-by-mann-ramblings/
Amazon US: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B017I26RXG/
Amazon UK: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B017I26RXG/
Amazon AU: http://www.amazon.com.au/dp/B017I26RXG/
Amazon DE: http://www.amazon.de/dp/B017I26RXG/
ARe: https://www.allromanceebooks.com/product-acook039stale-1925761-153.html
B&N: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/a-cooks-tale-mann-ramblings/1122908859

About the Author

Like many gay men, when Mann Ramblings grew up, there weren’t any heroes he could relate to. The world held him back while he tried futilely to hide the real person inside. So much has changed since those hollow days. He finally found his voice, the voice that says it’s all right to revel in the so-called inappropriate joys, laughs, and loves that storm inside a man’s head. It took a long time to find that courage and now that it’s here, he plans to use it well.

While spending years more focused on visual arts, he never let go of his innate passion for storytelling—he wanted to write and draw comic books when he grew up. Once he discovered M/M fiction, a whole new world opened with new possibilities. Why couldn’t you have fantastic and dynamic tales with an M/M cast? He started reading the online tales of authors like, Night Tempest, Rob Colton, and Alicia Nordwell, which only fueled within him the need to create. Eventually he found GayAuthors.org, and with a little coercive nudge from Night Tempest, started sharing his tales with an unexpected level of positive response. That experience and support gave him the courage to cross his fingers and aim for the world of M/M publishing.

Born and raised in Michigan, Mann Ramblings continues to type away, wishing it was practical to use a noisy, old fashioned keyboard that clacks with each strike, if only to annoy his loving partner and spoiled miniature dachshund.

Email: mannramblings@gmail.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mannramblings
Twitter: @mannramblings

Series Recap Tour & Giveaway – Anna Butler’s Taking Shield Series

Series Recap Tour & Giveaway – Anna Butler – Taking Shield Series

Gyrfalcon (Taking Shield #1)
 
Earthís last known colony, Albion, is fighting an alien enemy. In the first of the Taking Shield series, Shield Captain Bennet is dropped behind the lines to steal priceless intelligence. A dangerous job, and Bennet doesnít need the distractions of changing relationships with his long-term partner, Joss, or with his fatheróor with Flynn, the new lover who will turn his world upside-down. He expects to risk his life. He expects the data will alter the course of the war. What he doesnít expect is that it will change his life or that Flynn will be impossible to forget.

 

Heart Scarab (Taking Shield #2)
 
Telnos is an unpleasant little planet, inhabited by religious fanatics in the festering marshlands and unregistered miners running illegal solactinium mines up in the hills. But the Maess want Telnos, and Shield Captain Bennetís job is to get out as many civilians as he canóa task that leaves him lying on Telnos while the last cutter of evacuees escapes in the teeth of the Maess invasion.
  Bennet is listed missing in action, believed dead on a planet now overrun by Maess drones. His family is grieving. His long-term partner, Joss, is both mourning and guilt-ridden. And Fleet Lieutenant Flynn? Flynn is desolate. Flynn is heart-brokenÖno. Flynn is just broken.
Makepeace (Taking Shield #3)
 
Returning to duty following his long recovery from the injuries he sustained during the events recounted in Heart Scarab, Shield Captain Bennet accepts a tour of duty in Fleet as flight captain on a dreadnought. The one saving grace is that it isnít his fatherís shipóbad enough that he canít yet return to the Shield Regiment, at least he doesnít have the added stress of commanding former lover Fleet Lieutenant Flynn, knowing the fraternisation regulations will keep them apart.
  Working on the material he collected himself on T18 three years before, Bennet decodes enough Maess data to send him behind the lines to Makepeace, once a human colony but under Maess control for more than a century. The mission goes belly up, costing Albion one of her precious, irreplaceable dreadnoughts and bringing political upheaval, acrimony and the threat of public unrest in its wake. But for Bennet, the real nightmare is discovering what the Maess have in store for humanity.
Itís not good. Itís not good at all.
Author Bio:
Anna was a communications specialist for many years, working in various UK government departments on everything from marketing employment schemes to organizing conferences for 10,000 civil servants to running an internal TV service. These days, though, she is writing full time. She recently moved out of the ethnic and cultural melting pot of East London to the rather slower environs of a quiet village tucked deep in the Nottinghamshire countryside, where she lives with her husband and the Deputy Editor, aka Molly the cockerpoo.

 

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A BJ Review: Staged (Belonging #3) by Kim Fielding

Rating:    5 stars out of 5

Staged_600x900Once the second-prize winner on My Slave’s Got Talent, Sky Blue has spent the past few years singing at a failing New York nightclub. While Sky has never had control over his fate, his life seems to take a turn for the worse when he’s torn from the familiar comfort of performing and sold to a rich and enigmatic man.

Morgan Wallace takes his newly purchased slave to San Francisco, his intentions unclear. On the one hand, he treats Sky with more kindness than Sky has ever known—treats him like a real person. On the other hand, he shares Sky at parties hosted by his sadistic new friends.

A confused slave is an endangered slave, and Sky isn’t even sure of his master’s real name. Is he Morgan Wallace, wealthy and cruel, or Mackenzie Webster, caring and compassionate? Caught between hope, fear, and an undeniably growing attachment, Sky struggles to untangle which parts are real and which are merely a performance. His future, his heart, and even his life may depend on it.

First off, I’ve not read any of the previous books in this series, but I was told it was merely in the same universe and cold be read as a standalone. After reading it, I can assure anyone considering doing the same that I never felt like I didn’t understand anything during reading this story.

I’ve been interested in the series and had already purchased but not yet read the first book, but when I was offered the ARC of this one, I couldn’t turn it down since I’ve enjoyed every single book I’ve read by this author. And a few of them I’ve even loved. Might as well say right off the bat that Staged falls firmly into the loved category. This story sucked me in from page one and was one of those rare books that I hated to put down and was almost sorry to see end.

This isn’t the first book in which this author has ventured to the dark side, but readers should be aware that there is non-con, violence, and some pretty horrific  torture scenes. Which for me, made the sweet and tender scenes amidst it stand out all the more. Sky and Morgan/Mac are two of the most enthralling main characters I’ve read in a while. Sky is a slave in a world where folks say that slaves aren’t like others, don’t feel emotions the same, aren’t fit to care for themselves. And yet Sky is, as Morgan/Mac says, just the most amazing person. He enthralled me from the beginning. The entire story is written from Sky’s POV. Very often in single POV stories, at some point I find myself wanting to get into the head of the other character for more depth and insight, but that was never at all the case here. It was perfect the way it was written.

There were so many feels wound into this. It touched my heart and made me say “Awww”, then turned around and horrified me. It also at parts alternately had me tears-eyed, irate, on the edge of my seat, and stupidly proud. Sky’s personality really starts to unfold and bloom as he’s allowed for the first time to experience all of the many bits and parts of life that were withheld from him which exhilarates and confuses him. He experiences TLC for the first time, but is understandably too confused and fearful to be able to trust in it. Watching him find pleasure and joy in small things and living in the moment even when he knows that more bad is coming because he has been warned to expect it. So poignant to see him learn in tiny sips what it feels like to be in control for short periods of time, to make decisions on his own, to read and search the net and learn things about the world. But it wasn’t all feeling, as there are also many bits that made me think.

Morgan/Mac, a man who’d never owned a slave but had an awful childhood of his own driving him, also grows a lot in this book as he discovers that all he’s accepted about slavery is wrong. And as he begins to lose his heart to a slave. Right from the start, he seems in awe of him. Throughout a lot of story, Morgan is left a bit of an enigma, and yet through Sky’s narrations, we see his heart come out, see what kind of man he seems to be.

I’m going to stop as I don’t want to go into the story much beyond the blurb. This his story has motivated me to make time in my busy line up of TBRs to fit in book one which I already own sooner rather than later. I definitely want to revisit this world again soon. I just wish I could also revisit these characters—I didn’t want to let them go.

The cover by Tami Santarossa was not a favorite because it wouldn’t have drawn me to look at the story if I’d seen just that, but the layout and style does fits with the series.

Sales Links:  Riptide Publishing | ARe | Amazon – more links to come

Book Details:

ebook, 255 pages
Expected publication: July 18th 2016 by Riptide Publishing
ISBN139781626494664
Edition LanguageEnglish


Love Sci Fy? Check out The Silvers by J.A. Rock (giveaway tour)

The Silvers

The Silvers by J.A. Rock
Riptide Publishing
Cover art by Simoné

Read an Excerpt/Buy It Here

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Scattered Thoughts and Rogue Words is happy to have J.A Rock here today talking about her latest release, The Silvers. Welcome, J.A.

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Hi! I’m J.A. Rock, and right now I’m touring the internet talking about my latest release, The Silvers. Thanks so much to the blogs that are hosting me on this tour, and be sure to leave comments on the tour posts for a chance to win a $15 Riptide Publishing gift card!

About The Silvers

What humans want from the Silver Planet is water. What they find is a race of humanoids who are sentient, but as emotionless and serene as the plants and placid lakes they tend.

B, captain of the mission, doesn’t believe that the “Silvers” are intelligent, and lets his crew experiment on them. But then he bonds with Imms, who seems different from the others—interested in learning, intrigued by human feelings. And B realizes that capturing, studying, and killing this planet’s natives has done incalculable damage.

When a fire aboard B’s ship kills most of the crew and endangers Imms, B decides to take him back to Earth. But the simplicity of the Silver Planet doesn’t follow them. Imms learns the full spectrum of human emotions, including a love B is frightened to return, and a mistrust of the bureaucracy that wants to treat Imms like a test subject, even if they have to eliminate B to do it.

About the Author

J.A. Rock is the author of queer romance and suspense novels, including By His Rules, Take the Long Way Home, and, with Lisa Henry, The Good Boy and When All The World Sleeps. She holds an MFA in creative writing from the University of Alabama and a BA in theater from Case Western Reserve University. J.A. also writes queer fiction and essays under the name Jill Smith. Raised in Ohio and West Virginia, she now lives in Chicago with her dog, Professor Anne Studebaker.

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Giveaway

To celebrate the release of The Silvers, J.A. Rock is giving away $15 in Riptide Publishing credit. Leave a comment with your contact info to enter the contest. Entries close at midnight, Eastern time, on July 16, 2016. Contest is NOT restricted to U.S. entries. Thanks for following the tour, and don’t forget to leave your contact info!

A Barb, A Zany Old Lady Audiobook Review: Sacrati by Kate Sherwood – audiobook narrated by Dorian Bane

Rating: 5 stars out of 5

Sacrati_AudiobookThis was an amazing story, both complex and intriguing, and it held my attention throughout the twelve and a half hours of audio.

During a routine scouting expedition, Theos and his band of Sacrati, an elite military unit, come across what could be an advance team of Elkati. Being superior fighters, the Sacrati immediately subdue the invaders and Theos takes them prisoner. Among them is Finnvid, the brother of the King of Elkat. He’s on a secret mission to meet with the Torian War Minister, but it’s ultra-secret, and as we find out later in the story, it’s important to the Warlord that no one find out about it. In the meantime, it quickly becomes apparent that Finnvid is also a healer when Andros, Theos’s best friend, is bitten by a viper along the trail and Finnvid takes steps to save him. Save him he does, but in doing so, he’s come to Theos’s closer attention.

A few days after they get back to their land, Theos spots the Warlord shipping out a group of slaves, but with winter quickly approaching, he’s surprised because this is unusual, but even more—he’s shocked when he sees Finnvid about to be chained by the neck to the rest of the men. He immediately claims Finnvid as his prize for having captured the prisoners, and though he argues about it, the Warlord has no choice but to allow Theos to have him. Theos tells all that he’s claiming Finnvid as his bedwarmer, and a stunned Finnvid has no choice but to follow Theos to his room. As the days go by, what’s even more shocking to Finnvid is the Torian way of having sex with whoever is at hand, usually another soldier. The men think nothing of coupling in front of each other, whether it’s penetrative sex or oral or even handjobs. Pleasure is pleasure to them. But not to Finnvid who has led a sheltered life and comes from a land where men only mate with women and they mate for life.

There’s so much conflict in this story, it’s very important to pay attention to the audiobook at all times. We learn about the Torian way of life, and then when the Torian soldiers accompany the Elkati back to their country in an apparently peaceful mission, we learn even more about their way of life, and we learn just how underhanded the Warlord has been. More danger and intrigue ensue, and it’s quite a long time and even more conflict before Theos and Finnvid find their way back into each other’s good graces, and ultimately into each other’s arms.

Remarkably, in the midst of battle and chaos and political plotting, there is a HEA, one that these two men so richly deserve. I enjoyed listening to the story, and the narrator did a very good job. His voice reminded me of what I would think of as a storyteller of olde days, and the voice he gave Theos was perfect in its gruffness. I didn’t care for the voice he gave Finnvid, however, that didn’t detract from my overall enjoyment of the book.

If you enjoy stories of faraway kingdoms, knights and soldiers, war and intrigue, you should definitely plan to get this audiobook. It was, as I said at the beginning, an amazing story.

Cover art by Kanaxa shows a robed and hooded figure with a sword in each hand. Good symbolism for this story, though in gray and white, it’s not visually appealing.

Sales Links:  Riptide Publishing | Audible | Amazon

Audiobook Details:

Released May 26nd 2016 by Riptide Publishing
Original TitleSacrati
Edition LanguageEnglish
URLhttp://riptidepublishing.com/titles/sacrati

Finalist: Best LGBT SF/F/Horror in the 28th Annual Lambda Literary Awards!

Love Sex with your Science Fiction? Its the Bounty Series Finale with No Master (Bounty #3) by Christine d’Abo (giveaway)

NoMaster_600x900

No Master (Bounty #3) by Christine d’Abo
Riptide Publishing
Cover art by Lou Harper

Read an Excerpt/Buy It Here

 

Hello, my name is Christine d’Abo! Thank you so much for having me here on the blog today.

There’s something special about the last book in a series. In the case of my Bounty series, I wanted to explore a character that held more power than some of the previous characters. Korbin, the Admiral of the Black is the de facto leader of the space pirates; a dangerous man who is not to be trifled with. The only man to come close is Zain, the Admiral’s second in command and the one person who knows all of his secrets.

Too bad for Korbin, Zain has more than a few secrets of his own.

I loved playing with the master/slave dynamic with these two men. The power exchange in their professional lives becomes confused when they must take things to the next level. Zain’s past as a freed sex slave makes every interaction with Korbin painful when they are forced to pretend to be master and slave. It forces them to confront their feelings for one another, something they wouldn’t otherwise have done.

Not to mention the sex.

Did I mention the sex?

Yeah…it’s pretty hot. ☺

I hope you enjoy the final tale in the Bounty series.

If you would like to learn more about me, please pay a visit to my website www.christinedabo.com. I’m also very active on Twitter as @Christine_dAbo and have a monthly newsletter. If you’d like to sign up, simply click here to fill out the form.

About No Master

No man in the galaxy inspires more fear than Korbin, the Admiral of the Black. His life as leader of the biggest pirate band in space leaves little room for trust, so when Korbin’s second-in-command disappears without a trace, he suspects the worst.

Zain Strand has left his life as a sex slave behind and risen within the pirate ranks. But he abandons it all to rescue an old friend from recapture by the slavers—even if that means a suicidal confrontation with his old master. He doesn’t expect Korbin’s arrival, doesn’t want Korbin’s help . . . but Korbin gives Zain no choice.

Posing as master and slave to infiltrate a slave auction, Korbin and Zain embark on a journey of lust that rapidly reveals their deeper feelings. When Zain’s old master discovers their ruse, Korbin must do everything in his power to save both their lives and their newfound love.

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Publisher’s note: While books #1 and #2 in the Bounty series should be read in order, this book stands alone and can be read without the first two.

This title is an edited second edition, previously published in 2011.

About Christine d’Abo

A romance novelist and short story writer, Christine has over thirty publications to her name. She loves to exercise and stops writing just long enough to keep her body in motion too. When she’s not pretending to be a ninja in her basement, she’s most likely spending time with her family and two dogs.

Connect with Christine:

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Giveaway

To celebrate the release of the Bounty series, one lucky person will receive a $50 gift certificate to Riptide. Winner will be selected from across all three book tours (No Quarter, No Remedy, No Master) and as such, the contest is open until midnight, Eastern time, on July 2, 2016. Contest is NOT restricted to U.S. entries. Comment to enter, and don’t forget to leave your contact info!

Bounty

Bounty hunters and pirates may contend for dominance in the vast reaches of interstellar space, but the heart of the conflict always comes down to who you know. Who you hate. Who you love.