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Its Time to Reveal the Cover for Vampire Rising by Larry Benjamin (author interview and giveaway)

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Vampire Rising by Larry Benjamin
Release Date: Summer, 2015

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Goodreads Link
Publisher: Beaten Track Publishing
Cover Artist: Natasha Snow

Sales Links: http://www.vampirerising.com

Beaten Path Publishing  (eBook and Paperback)  – Amazon – Beaten Path Publishing eBook only

Blurb:

It’s the mid twenty-first century. Anti-Semitism, racism, sexism and homophobia have been consigned to the dustbin of history. The world is run by “the state,” and Christian zealots, whose chief governing tools are fear and oppression. It’s a wonderful time to be alive—unless you’re a Vampire. Vampires are despised, and feared, and subjected to discrimination and unspeakable violence.

Considered undead, unholy, without basic human rights, Gatsby Calloway lives on the fringes of society, avoiding humanity. Until he meets Barnabas, a young encaustic painter.

When Barnabas is mortally wounded during an anti-Vampire attack, Gatsby must forget everything he has known, and learn to trust.

Pages or Words: 67 pages

Categories: Fantasy, Gay Fiction, M/M Romance, Urban Fantasy

Excerpt:

“This here coming up is the stop for Chicksand Street,” the bus driver called out.

Barnabas stood and walked to the front of the bus. He peered out the windshield into the dark, then looked at the driver. “The schedule said you stopped at Chicksand Street,” Barnabas said.

“Not after dark I don’t,” the driver shot back. “This here is as far as I’m going tonight!”

Barnabas shrugged and moved to the door. The Mexican woman he’d noticed earlier touched his arm. As he turned to her, she drew a silver crucifix attached to rosary beads from around her neck and, muttering a prayer in Spanish, pressed it into his hands. He closed his hand around the offering still warm from her bosom and said, “Thank you.”

The bus slowed and the driver said, “This here road, about a mile on, becomes Chicksand Street.” He opened the door, barely stopping long enough for Barnabas to disembark. As soon as his feet touched the curb, the driver closed the door and sped away as fast as the bus’ ancient diesel engine would allow. As the bus passed him he saw the passengers with their foreheads and palms pressed against the windows, their eyes wide, and their mouths forming tiny “O”s of fright.

 

About the author:

Bronx-born wordsmith, Larry Benjamin considers himself less a writer than an artist whose chosen medium is the written word rather than clay or paint or bronze. His debut novel, the gay romance What Binds Us was released by Carina Press in March 2012. His second book, Damaged Angels, a collection of short stories, is a 2013 Rainbow Award Runner-Up in the Gay Contemporary General Fiction category. His third book, Unbroken, was a 2014 Lambda Literary finalist, and a 2014 IPPY (Independent Publishers Book Award) Gold medalist.

He lives in Philadelphia with his husband and their two dogs.

Where to find the author:

Facebook Author Page: https://www.facebook.com/AuthorLarryBenjamin
Twitter: https://twitter.com/WriterLarry
Website: http://www.larrybenjamin.com

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Tour Dates & Stops: June 3, 2015
Parker Williams, Multitasking Mommas, Divine Magazine, Bayou Book Junkie, Andrew Q. Gordon, Scattered Thoughts & Rogue Words, Inked Rainbow Reads, TTC Books and More, Fangirl Moments and My Two Cents, Rainbow Gold Reviews, MM Good Book Reviews, Molly Lolly, Happily Ever Chapter, My Fiction Nook, BFD Book Blog, Mikky’s World of Books, Sinfully Addicted to All Male Romance, Havan Fellows, Vampires, Werewolves, and Fairies, Oh My, Hearts on Fire, Michael Mandrake, Elin Gregory

Contest

Rafflecopter Prize: 3 books from Larry’s backlist.  Must be 18 years of age or older to enter. Link and prizes provided by the author and Pride Promotions.

Unbroken
My parents, unable to change me, had instead, silenced me. When they’d stilled my hands, they’d taken my words, made me lower my voice to a whisper. Later I remained silent in defense, refusing to acknowledge the hateful words: Brainiac. Sissy. Antiman. Faggot.
Lincoln de Chabert’s life is pretty unremarkable until he comes home from kindergarten and announces he will marry his best friend, Orlando, when he grows up.  His parents spring into immediate action, determined to fix him―his father takes him to baseball games and the movie “Patton”―igniting an epic battle of wills as Lincoln is determined to remain himself, and marry whom he chooses, at all costs.

What Binds Us
When 17 year old Thomas Edward meets the man of his dreams, he assumes they’ll be together forever. When their relationship ends abruptly, he learns that sometimes it’s in an ending that we find our beginning.
At 17 Thomas-Edward escapes southern New Jersey and the tyranny of his parents love thinking he is ready for his life to begin, thinking he is ready for anything.  Anything quickly arrives in the form of one Donovan Dion “Dondi” Whyte, his freshman roommate at the University of Pennsylvania. Dondi, who is like no one he has ever met before, in his own words: “Dondi became my guide, my Virgil, on my personal odyssey of self-discovery.”
Dondi introduces Thomas him into “a looking-glass world in which everything was familiar yet larger, more exquisite, more precious than anything he had ever known.” Dondi is stunningly wealthy, sophisticated, passionate, urbane—everything Thomas has dreamed of loving.  They fall in love but the relationship fails. They remain uneasy friends. Their fragile relationship is threatened when Thomas falls in love with Matthew, Dondi’s younger brother.

Damaged Angels
Damaged Angels is the first collection of short fiction by Larry Benjamin. The 13 stories in this collection give voice to the invisible, the damaged: the drug addicts and hustlers, the mentally ill, the confused, and the men who fall in love with them, all of them bravely trying to make a place for themselves in the world of unbroken men. Their worlds are sometimes the mean streets of decaying cities, sometimes the great beyond and, once, the earth itself. Often dark, always evocative and lyrical, these stories delve into the lives of men clearly less-than-perfect and explore love in the context of disease and oncoming death as in “The Cross,” drug addiction, as in “The Seduction of the Angel Gabriel,” and mental illness in “2 Rivers.” These stories explore the possibility that less-than-perfect is sometimes perfect.

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Head Into the Woods For Fantasy and Romance with Stephen del Mar’s The Live Oak Tales (author interview and giveaway)

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The Live Oak Series by Stephen del Mar:

Books in the series include…

Dark Love; The Bear, the Witch, and the Web; and Hunter Moon and the Red Wolf
Should be read in order

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Release Date: Book 1: Spring 2015, Books 2 & 3: May, 2015

In love with paranormal romance?  Want new tales with dragons, and shifters, and wolves, and love?  Check out the books that make up The Live Oak Tales by Stephen del Mar.  Blurbs and excerpts below.

My Interview with Stephen del Mar…

Today I’m very lucky to be interviewing Stephen del Mar author of The Live Oak Tales series. Hi Stephen, thank you for agreeing to this interview. Tell us a little about yourself, your background, and your current book.

Thanks, I’m very excited to be here. This is my first blog tour. Basic stuff about me: I’m a 54 year old gay man living in the Tampa Bay area of Florida. I have a background in media production and attended seminary for a while.

I’ve just finished and released “Hunter Moon & the Red Wolf,” which is the last book in “The Live Oak Tales.” This series is a fun and, at times, a quirky take on contemporary/paranormal fantasy. We have witches, faeries and a number of shifter folk all trying to do the right thing and live together. All of this is set in the Bennett Bay area on the Gulf Coast of Florida. A fun little place I’ve made up. I wanted a place where I could condense all of Florida into one county with a tourist town and backwater villages. I’ve been very influenced by the southern literary traditions and setting is always one of my main characters. A strong sense of place is a must for southern fiction, as is a bit of spirit, in whatever form that may take.

What book do you wish you could have written?

I honestly have no idea how to answer this. I’m in the process of writing everything I want to write. I’ve read a lot of very good books over the years, but if I’d written them they’d be different. Each writer has their own voice. Maybe I’m over thinking this and need more tea!

How important are names to you (in your books)? Do you choose names based on liking the way it sounds or meaning? How do you choose your names?

Names are really important to me. The sound of a name is really important as is the meaning. Sometimes characters come to me with their names in place. This is usually true of main characters. For minor ones, I search baby name sites for names that catch my eye. I also collect cool names for later use.

I move to my current location about a year ago and one of the streets I take to get home is Krycul. I just loved the harsh sound of that name. I knew I’d use it somewhere. In “Hunter Moon & the Red Wolf” I needed an evil guy that owned a meat packing plant. Krycul was it!

Were you already a great writer? Have you always enjoyed writing? How long have you been writing?

Okay, I’m not touching the “great” thing. 😉 I’ve wanted to write probably since high school, but two things stood in my way. One is I have dyslexia which makes writing a real bitch. I had to wait for computer technology to come around to assist me. The second is I’m a real pantser. That’s a writer who writes by the seat of their pants, without an outline, and discovers the story as it unfolds, much like the reader. Not one of my writing teachers in high school or college ever mentioned that this was a thing. Not one of those how to write book I bought over the years ever said you could just sit down and start writing. I imagine you can’t sell a lot of books that say, just write.

Outlines freeze me up for some reason. For thirty years, I was in this stuck state, then a writer friend of mine visited and took me to task for not writing. So I told her what I mentioned above and she looked at me like the fool I was. First she said, well there are these people called editors and proof readers that can help me clean up the spelling issues. Then she told me to just sit down and write. You don’t need an outline. Lots of writers don’t use them. Everyone writes different. Really? They couldn’t put that in a book?

So the best writing advice I can give: Just do it. Early drafts are supposed to be messy. There are people to help with that, if you need it. And most importantly, find what works for you. Go back to the first part, butt in chair and write. Finish what you write. Get it edited and beta read, publish the sucker and move on. Seems so easy now.

Which character, from any of your books, do you consider your greatest work?

There’s that word again. I really like Dieter in “Dark Love.” It’s a first person story so we get into his head. He’s gone through a lot and he’s become somewhat of a jerk. I think it’s fun to see him realize that and wrestle with it. He really doesn’t want to be a jerk, especially to his closest friends and his new boyfriend, but bless his heart, sometimes he just can’t help himself.

What hobbies do you enjoy?

Hobbies? Oh, yeah, those things I did before I started writing. I used to really be into aquariums. I had fish tanks everywhere and I also really enjoyed photography, it was my minor in college. But writing has taken over all of my free time. If I’m not at the Evil Day Job, I’m doing something writing related. And I really like hanging with my imaginary friends.

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Goodreads Link
Publisher: LMW Books

Sales Links:

“Slay me,” said the dragon.  Buy At Amazon
Dark Love   Buy At Amazon
The Bear, the Witch and the Web   Buy At Amazon
Hunter Moon and the Red Wolf  Buy At Amazon

STRW Author BookSynopsis

About The Live Oak Tales

The Live Oak Tales is a paranormal/contemporary fantasy series set in the wider Stories from Bennett Bay collection by Stephen del Mar. The series consists of one short story (“Slay me,” said the dragon.), which serves as a standalone prequel and three novels, Dark Love, The Bear, the Witch and the Web, and Hunter Moon and the Red Wolf.

  • “Slay me,” said the dragon. is a tongue-in-cheek look at a romantic encounter between a dragon and a slayer. It sets up the mythology of dragon shifters that runs through the rest of the series.
  • Dark Love, a metaphor for gay love, takes us from the ordinary world of the Bennett Bay, a Gulf-side tourist town in Florida, to the tiny, backwater village of Live Oak. Dieter Reinhold, the proprietor of a trendy café in Bennett Bay’s Spanish Quarter travels back to Live Oak to deal with the death of his great uncle, the man that raised him as a father. While there, he learns there are more interesting creatures in the woods than he ever imagined. He discovers that magic, witches, and undying love are real.
  • In The Bear, the Witch and the Web, Innes Callahan and the circle of witches we met in Dark Love are facing a number of crises. The greatest of which is that the faeries are missing. In fact, all the enchantment seems to be gone from the Jumble, the wild woods adjacent to the farm. They need to find the faeries and discover who the new Witch of the Wood will be.
  • The final book in the series, Hunter Moon and the Red Wolf, finds the Circle still in disarray as Janos Pac tries to come into his own as the new Witch of the Woods. This is complicated by a plot by the dragons and wolves returning to Florida after nearly a hundred years, but are they really wolves?

These books are on the lighter side of the paranormal spectrum with a fair bit of humor. However, they do touch on deeper issues. Dark Love explores loss, grief, and what it means to hide one’s love. The stories also explore what it means to make hard choices about our path in life; and, an overarching theme is the changing nature of family as we move through life. How we move from our family of birth to the family we create with friends and lovers.
Pages or Words:
“Slay me,” said the dragon: 45 pages
Dark Love: 398 pages
The Bear, the Witch, & the Web: 153 pages
Hunter Moon & Red Wolf: 249 pages
Categories: Contemporary, Gay Fiction, M/M Romance, Paranormal, Urban Fantasy. (Book two also includes an older main character.)

STRW Spotlight Book Excerpt

Excerpt from Dark Love: Book 1 in the Live Oak Tales
Setup: Dieter is alone at the family’s old farmhouse after the death of his uncle. His ex-lover and still good friend Innes comes over to comfort him. Innes finds the mysterious silver box Dieter found out in the barn, which seems to have human ash in it. Innes warns him that it might be dangerous. Innes is a witch and Dieter thinks magic is bull. Innes calls in his mentor, Flora May Crawford, to help him convince Dieter there is danger afoot. It doesn’t work. Later, Innes calls back with another warning for Dieter. It doesn’t make him think Innes is any less crazy.

*****
Of course that was the moment my phone made the little nose-twitch tinkle-tinkle. I sighed, go with the flow and remember you love him.
I picked up the phone. “Hello, Innes.”
“Didn’t you get my text?” He sounded flustered.
“No. I haven’t looked at my phone. I’ve had other things on my mind.”
“Oh. Right. Well, what are you doing?”
“Sitting naked in the kitchen having soup and a sandwich.”
“Why?”
“Because I was hungry. What do you want?”
He didn’t say anything for a moment. I heard the creak of a screen door and the chirping of frogs. He must have moved outside onto Flora May’s front porch. “Look,” he said, “Flora May just got back from the faeries.” He paused like he expected me to comment. I had nothing.
“She’s not telling me a lot. Said they’re pretty agitated about the whole thing.”
Again the pause. Again I was silent; although I was worrying my grip on the phone would reach its crush point.
“Dieter, you gotta promise me to take this seriously.”
Actually, I didn’t have to promise him anything.
“Dieter?”
“Yes?”
I heard him swallow. “Tonight is a full moon.”
“So? It happens every twenty-eight days from what I understand.”
“Fuck.” He was agitated. “Listen, whatever you do, don’t jack-off in that box under the full moon.”
My mind kicked into neutral and spun its gears as it tried to make sense of the string of words it just received. Because they didn’t make any sense and they kept coming.
He continued. “I mean it. Whatever you do, do not mix your semen with that ash in the full moonlight.”
Some emergency back-up system took over. My thumb slid over my phone and ended the call. I stood up, opened the fridge and pulled a beer out. I twisted the top off and dropped it on the table. I pushed my way through the swinging door into the living room. As I fell back onto the couch, I tried to imagine a world where the idea of masturbating into a box of human ash existed, let alone the need to warn someone not to do that. Ohhh, I’m gonna cum, make sure the drapes are pulled and the lids are on all the urns, ‘cause we don’t want our spunk and ash and moonlight to mix! ‘Cause that will start the zombie apocalypse or something.

STRW Author Bio and Contacts

About the author:
Stephen del Mar is a fresh voice in Southern Gay Fiction. His Bennett Bay collection of books and stories explore life in that unique corner of the American South known as Florida. He also writes fantasy and science-fiction. Del Mar lives in the Tampa Bay region of Florida and enjoys Key Lime Pie and mango margaritas, but not at the same time.

Where to find the author:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/stephen.delmar.5
Facebook Author Page
Twitter: https://twitter.com/StephendelMar
Website: http://www.stephendelmar.com

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Enter to win a Rafflecopter Prize: Ebook copy of Dark Love, Book 1 in the Live Oak Tales. Must be 18 years of age or older to enter. Link and prizes provided by the author and Pride Promotions.

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Tour Dates & Stops:
1-Jun
Bayou Book Junkie
Rainbow Gold Reviews

2-Jun
Parker Williams
My Fiction Nook

3-Jun
Molly Lolly
Scattered Thoughts & Rogue Words

4-Jun
Divine Magazine
MM Good Book Reviews
Havan Fellows

5-Jun
BFD Book Blog

In Our Book Spotlight: Two Sides of the Same Coin by Thianna Durston (excerpt and giveaway)

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Two Sides of the Same Coin by Thianna Durston
Release Date: May 17, 2015

A Kindle Exclusive: Amazon Buy Link

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Goodreads Link
Publisher: Thianna Durston

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STRW Author BookSynopsis

Blake Loughton was pretty sure life was over at the age of forty. All he did was work, work, work, except for the few hours a week he spent online with a dominant who seemed to get him. When he met his dom in person quite by accident, it changed everything, especially when he fell in love with the man behind the online persona.

At thirty-four Dusty Brandon had been involved in his alternative lifestyle for ages, but hadn’t had a sub in years until he met Blake online. The more he knew him, the more he wanted to take things further. Getting through Blake’s barriers used all the knowledge he had, but getting his boy to move to Texas took even more.

Join Blake and Dusty on their journey from meeting online to the moment Sir collars his boy. A BDSM erotic romance sure to make everything worth it. Two men. Dominance, submission, kink, and love. The Blake/Dusty Chronicles: Two Sides of the Same Coin – an erotic romance you won’t want to miss.

Pages or Words: 90,000 words

Categories: BDSM, Contemporary, Gay Fiction, M/M Romance

STRW Spotlight Book Excerpt

PG Excerpt:
December 10th ~ Texas

Walking through the doorway Dusty Brandon held back the sigh that wanted to leave his lips as the conversation in the room stalled slightly. It had been that way ever since he came out years ago. His whole damned family never knew what to say when he was around. Except for his Uncle Larry who winked at him across the room.

“‘Bout time you got here!” Larry bellowed.

Grinning, he strode through the throngs of uncles, aunts, and cousins over to a man he loved. “Happy Holidays, Uncle,” he said, giving him a hug.

“Same to you. How’s business?” Larry asked as the conversations in the room began to pick up again.

“Good. Have several new deals in the works. Found out about a company in Seattle that might be worth lookin’ into. They would add a lot. And life’s good.”

It was just the quirk of an eyebrow that told him his uncle was not in the least convinced. “Sure it is. Any new man on the horizon?”

Grimacing, Dusty shook his head. “Naw. Last one was too taxing. Needed a break.”

With one of his smiles, the kind that let you know he was up to something, Larry picked up a couple glasses of champagne and handed him one. “Sell that to someone who’ll buy it,
Nephew. Now let’s celebrate the season. I hear Carilee has somethin’ to announce.”

Snorting, Dusty took a swig of the expensive champagne. “Probably that her daughter is expectin’. She loves rubbin’ that in Mama’s nose every chance she can get.”

Even worse, four pregnancies in the family were announced, meaning four of his cousins, all younger than he was, were expecting a child. “It could be worse,” Larry mused as they watched Dusty’s mother have to smile and congratulate another of her sisters on a new grandchild.

“How?” Dusty was gay. He had known it for years and when he came out, it was because he needed to do it. It never occurred to him how hard it would be on his own mother. As her only child, he had not understood just how important being a grandmother was to her and hearing her only son was gay had been hard enough. Having the other women in the family gloat over it every time their daughter or son announced a new baby downright pissed him off.

“You could have tried to hide who you are and got someone pregnant before you came out.”

Musing on that, Dusty nodded. “Don’t think that woulda’ worked. No girl would get me that excited.”

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STRW Author Bio and Contacts

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

She enjoys writing about couples with kink, paranormal couples, and straight out strangeness. But more on that later… You can find her at mm.thiannad.com.

She also writes m/f under the name Thianna D.

Where to find the author:

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

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Tour Dates & Stops: June 2, 2015
Parker Williams, The Hat Party, Bayou Book Junkie, Molly Lolly, My Fiction Nook, BFD Book Blog, Inked Rainbow Reads, Divine Magazine, MM Good Book Reviews, Wake Up Your Wild Side, Havan Fellows, 3 Chicks After Dark, Rainbow Gold Reviews, Michael Mandrake, It’s Raining Men, Scattered Thoughts & Rogue Words, Happily Ever Chapter, Up All Night, Read All Day, Fangirl Moments and My Two Cents, Vampires, Werewolves, and Fairies, Oh My, Mikky’s World of Books, Hearts on Fire

 

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 Enter to win a Rafflecopter Prize: E-book copy of ‘Two Sides of the Same Coin’.  Must be 18 years of age or older to enter. Link and prizes provided by the author and Pride Promotions.
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Cover Reveal Time for Sloan Johnson’s Wild Pitch -Love Among the Boys of Summer! (excerpt and giveaway)

WildPitch

Homeruns Series #1
Wild Pitch
by Sloan Johnson

Coming June 18, 2015

Wild Pitch by Sloan Johnson

Synopsis:

There’s never been any question in Sean Tucker’s mind that he’d do whatever it took to make it to the major leagues and be one of the best pitchers of his time. The day he acknowledged to himself that he was gay was also the day he vowed to stay in the closet in order to chase his dreams. The problem is, he never counted on Mason Atley.

Sean showed rookie short stop Mason Atley the ropes, both on the field and off. The two forged a friendship which continued as both of them moved through the ranks of the farm system and into the majors. Unfortunately, there’s always been one secret Mason never felt he could share with Sean. Until now.

For seven years, Sean lived with the fact that he loved a man who would never reciprocate. When Mason admits that he’s always known he’s bisexual but has never allowed himself to pursue a relationship with a man, will Sean be able to put aside his reservations about starting a relationship with the friend he’d always assumed was straight? And more importantly, will they be able to find a way to stay together when their careers keep them apart more than they can be together?

Add to your Goodreads TBR

Excerpt:

I waited until we’d polished off the entire pizza and the dishes were rinsed in the sink before confronting Sean about what I assumed was weighing on his mind.

“So, are you still going to tell me you and Eric were just friends?” I asked, handing him a second beer. I’d switched to soda, on the off chance that he wanted to head back to the hotel. The only thing that’d make today worse was a DUI.

“We were. We are,” he protested. His gaze bounced around the room, but never in my direction.

“Bullshit. Trades are part of the game. We both know that, and yet Eric leaving managed to get into your head and throw off your game today. You can tell yourself whatever you want, but I know you better than that,” I reminded him. We’d lived together for the better part of a year, and not once was he able to pull the wool over my eyes.

“Fine,” he grumbled, taking a long draw off his beer. I thought that was the closest I’d get to an admission from him as he rubbed the back of his neck. Then he crooked a finger against the side of his chin, twisting to the left, then the right, then the left again to crack his neck. As I watched him go through his nervous routine, I regretted pushing him when he obviously wasn’t ready. Something inside of him clicked and he started to talk again. “There may have been benefits included, but really, it wasn’t more than that. Neither of us are stupid enough to get involved with a teammate, so we settled for getting cozy in the closet when the urge struck. We figured it worked pretty damn well that the two gay guys wound up in the same room. What we did was no different from the shit the rest of the guys were doing, except we didn’t have to go out and find a new trick in each town.”

“So you fucked and you were close enough that his leaving got to you, but you’re going to tell me you weren’t involved?” I shouldn’t push the issue, but I was pissed. I hated the fact that he was obviously in denial about what they meant to one another.

“Yes, Mason, that’s exactly what I’m saying. Look, just because I don’t want a relationship doesn’t mean I don’t want to get laid every once in a while,” he argued. “And not wanting a commitment doesn’t mean I want a random stranger. Eric understood that and respected it. He’s in the same boat as me and we did what needed to be done.”

“Then why the head trip? Ever since I’ve known you, you’ve sworn you’d never do anything that fucked with your game. What’s so special about him that he was worth it?” As I ranted, I thought I sounded like the scorned friend who’d never be what Sean needed. And how could I be when he had no clue that he was so much more than my just my best friend?

Sean jumped off the couch and started pacing around the room, squeezing the back of his neck. “Because other than you, he’s the only person who’s come close to understanding how much baseball means to me,” he admitted. “I knew he wasn’t cut out for no-strings sex but he was willing to settle for that for me. He’s a good guy and yeah, I’m going to miss him. There, are you happy now?”

About the Author

Sloan Johnson is a big city girl trapped in a country girl’s life. While she longs for the hustle and bustle of New York City or Las Vegas, she hasn’t yet figured out how to sit on the deck with her morning coffee, watching the deer and wild turkeys in the fields while surrounded by concrete and glass.

When she was three, her parents received their first call from the principal asking them to pick her up from school. Apparently, if you aren’t enrolled, you can’t attend classes, even in Kindergarten. The next week, she was in preschool and started plotting her first story soon after.

Later in life, her parents needed to do something to help their socially awkward, uncoordinated child come out of her shell and figured there was no better place than a bar on Wednesday nights. It’s a good thing they did because this is where she found her love of reading and writing. Who needs socialization when you can sit alone in your bedroom with a good book?

Now, Sloan is a tattooed mom with a mohawk and two kids. She’s been kicked out of the PTA in two school districts and is no longer asked to help with fundraisers because she’s been known to lose herself with a good book and forget she has somewhere to be.

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Connect with Sloan Online

Facebook

Twitter

Goodreads

Pinterest

Website

Contest:

Enter to win a eBook of Wild Pitch. Must be 18 years of age or older to enter. Link and prizes provided by the author.

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A BJ Review: Human Frailties, Human Strengths (Guardians of the Leythe #1.0) by Jaye McKenna

Rating: 5 stars out of 5

Human Frailties Human Strengths coverAshnavayarian was a powerful, god-like being of the leythe, the place from which magical energies emanate. But Ash has been a bad boy. His thoughtless, selfish meddling and manipulating has led to a war and disturbances within the leythe. Ash needs to be taken down a peg or two, so the goddess Jhara punishes him by forcing him to live in human form with most of his power stripped from him. She hopes he’ll learn that using other creatures for his own amusement isn’t right and that some of the things he considers human frailties (like compassion and love) are just what he needs to learn. Of course, that doesn’t go over well with Ash, and he’s determined to thwart Jhara by any means necessary and break his exile. Jhara throws Ash another curveball when she leythe-bonds him to Toryn MacAran, a human!

Tor has never fit in and always harbored a painful emptiness inside, like something is missing. When a strange encounter at a bookstore one night ends up landing him at the feet of the handsome Ash, he may have found the answer. Ash’s touch takes his emptiness and pain away and makes him feel compete.

Both main characters are well developed and interesting in their own right, but when they come together, oh boy! The chemistry goes off the charts. I adored the interaction between these two. An emotional rollercoaster.

Ash is a self-centered, full of himself ass at the beginning of this story, but he’s so damn fun. Tor is the broken boy that I always adore. And I do adore him… except that by the end, I’m so in love with Ash that even Tor’s delicious brokenness cannot compare. These guys go through hell and back in this story, but the growth of the characters throughout is such a treat to read.

This is a complex fantasy that takes place on another world separate from the earth (from which Tor came). The world building is quite intricate and yet so smoothly woven that it never felt cumbersome as some fantasies do for me. Fast-paced, lots of wit, smoking hot sex, angst, sexy long-haired men (my fav!), and some freaky bad guys to hate from Lucano in the first section on to some of his horrible creations in the second.

And then there’s Carrik Tarn, a very interesting and pivotal secondary character. I won’t say much about him for fear of it being a spoiler, but I’d really like to know more of his background. Maybe that will come out in a sequel. Oh, and there’s this one scene where I just wanted to kick him in the nuts so bad I could taste it. Except, well, that would have been impossible even if I were there at the time.

So much happens in this book, much more than I’d expect for the number of pages. It has the depth of a much longer read–almost like an epic. I read the first half, Human Frailties, about a year ago as a freebie. Since I’d enjoyed the first half of the story quite a lot, I really have no idea why I waited so long to read the full story. But very glad I finally did because the second half took the tale into awesome territory. The second half made me fall in love.

So if you’ve read Human Frailties and never went on to read the rest, don’t wait! It only gets better.

Ash and Tor need a sequel, and actually, I’m pretty sure there is one currently in the works. I can’t wait. And one last thing–I have to mention how much I love the name Ashnavayarian and all its interesting variants!

The cover by Cinchbug depicts both characters just as I’d pictured them along with the other important elements of the story. The dark, mysterious mood is perfect.

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

Book Details:

ebook, Smashwords, 272 pages
Published September 30th 2013 by Jaye McKenna, via Smashwords
ISBN139781301308873
edition languageEnglish
urlhttp://www.smashwords.com/books/view/363010
seriesGuardians of the Leythe #1.0

A Stella Review: No Matter What (Sex & Mayhem #4) by K.A. Merikan

Rating:  4.25 stars out of 5

 

— A gentle heart has no place in an outlaw’s chest —



No Matter What coverGhost. Not a member of the Coffin Nails MC. Not a doctor anymore. Not gay.
Luca. Bent, not broken. Will not let go of Ghost. No matter what.

Ghost finds out the hard way that people you meet online aren’t always who they seem to be. When he met ‘Zara’ five years ago, they became inseparable. She’s been with him through the rough and the smooth. He’s been there for her when her abusive boyfriend had her in tears.

She is The One, and despite all his friends considering him crazy, Ghost is about to propose.

But ‘Zara’ turns out to be Luca, and Luca is most definitely a guy. Yet Luca is the same person with big dark eyes, so desperate to be saved that Ghost can’t help but fall head first.

Luca’s so-called boyfriend is not just abusive. He is a Sicilian drug lord, a man dangerous and ruthless. If Ghost is to ever save the person who wreaked havoc on his heart, he has to make a deal with the Coffin Nails MC. But being a member is a destiny he’s always tried to avoid. And when a life of violence becomes too much to bear, he might be the one needing Luca to catch him when he falls.

 

Ghost: I think I’ve fallen in love with you. Please don’t be angry…

Zara:…Angry? Wow, I’m just… I’ve had feelings for you for a while now.

Ghost: I just didn’t want you to feel like it’s the only reason I stick around. I’m not a creep.

Zara: I know you’re not 😉 You’re the kindest person I’ve ever met.

Zara: I love you too…

First of all please read the warning. It’s important you know what you’re going to read. Kat and Agnes don’t write easy books. There’s one scene in particular in this one where I truly wondered for a minute why I was even bothering myself with KA’s books knowing there could be some really “hard to take” parts. I should have known since I’m a huge fan. My hesitation lasted just the length of the scene.

No Matter What is the fourth book in the Sex & Mayhem series and the sweetest one I read by these authors, considering it’s my eighth and considering the setting and the dark plot with a couple of heavy scenes. It was definitely unexpected but so welcome. It was interesting cause I’m used to KA’s dark and hard worlds and now I know they can write something a little different.

It was strange at the start looking at Ghost, grown up in the club, not wanting to live that life and searching for a way out. But falling in love with Luca will bring Ghost to follow in his father’s footsteps and join the club to save and protect his lover.

I loved how there was not so much fussing about Zara being a man, Luca. Apart from the obvious initial shock, Ghost slowly realizes he loves Luca and tries to act on it, cause they already were in love for five years. They supported each other in their dark times, when Ghost loses his medical license or when he was shot in Syria, or when Luca saw suicide as the only solutions to all his problems.

There were great second characters, but my favorite couple in this series is Tooth and Lucky and I met them again in No Matter What. I wanted to kill Tooth, he really is a better person with Lucky, here he was (almost always) a fucker!
About the choice of lightly mixing this series with the Guns n’ Boys one, I appreciated it, don’t expect Dom or Seth in it, but someone I was so hoping to be killed here but nope, I have to meet him again soon.

I particularly loved the ending, I wasn’t so sure I could have this kind of HEA. It will be impossible cause I’m aware these girls have a busy writing time coming (we readers are really happy of it, of course), still I’d so love to know more about them, even in a little story, living their deserved happy ending.

I can’t recommend this book or this series or other ones by KA Merikan enough. When I first started reading their books, I was sure they weren’t for me. Well I was so wrong, I was caught in their amazing words’ web. Give them a try!

Cover art by Natasha Snow. Short version, there isn’t a cover made by Natasha I don’t love.

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

BOOK DETAILS

Published April 25th 2015 by Acerbi & Villani ltd.
Kindle Edition, 307 pages
ASIN B00WHBI318
Edition Language English

POSSIBLE SPOILERS:

Themes:Outlaw motorcycle club, criminal activity, hurt/comfort, abuse, catfishing, independence, sexual orientation issues, mafia, PTSD

WARNING: Adult content. Explicit gay sex, strong language, violence, potentially triggering sexual abuse scenes. Reader discretion advised.

Sex & Mayhem series
Road Of No Return #1
The Devil’s Ride #2
Stripped Raw-Coffin Nails MC California #3 (MF book)
No Matter What #4