A Sammy Review: Yours All Along (Loving on the Edge #7.5) by Roni Loren

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars.

“Would you make a move on me if I wasn’t?” he asked, no jest in his voice.

“No.”

“Not your type?”

Devon closed his eyes. “Nope.”

You’re exactly the wrong type. I don’t fuck people I love.

Hunter Riley has always been at his dad’s mercy. Being the son of a conservative politician isn’t easy. It’s all about being buttoned up and smiling when you just want to roll your eyes. But that set an example for Hunter – an example of how not to be. As soon as he’s able to, he moves as far away from his family as he can manage, and that means California.

There he meets Devon, an out-and-proud student with purple-streaked hair. They hit it off right away and soon become best friends and fraternity brothers. Hunter shows everyone, especially those in the fraternity, how being gay doesn’t mean you can’t be a brother by rooming with Devon.

At first it’s just jokes for them, easy laughs and fun times. But somehow they tip over that edge, exploring each other in ways they haven’t before. But one night and a horrible accident brings that all to a stop.

Years later, Hunter hasn’t spoken to Devon since the accident, but when his fiance sends him on a pre-wedding vacation to Texas where Devon lives, Hunter just can’t stay away. Did time ever really matter to them, or is it jut too late for Hunter to wake up from a life that isn’t his own?

And no matter what, he knew one thing for sure: He didn’t want it to end. He’d never had a friend like Hunter. He could find people to warm his bed. That part was easy. But there was no way he’d find someone who got him like Hunter did. That shit was different. Special. And worth protecting.

Roni Loren is a new author for me, as she usually writes M/F, which isn’t really my thing. But I decided to give it a chance. The blurb intrigued me, what can I say?

With the help of Roni, I was able to get my hands on the book and I easily devoured it. The story is short, perhaps a bit too short for my liking (but that just means I enjoyed it and really wanted more of them).

It takes on a few issues, such as having a family that would disown you for being gay or even having a gay roommate, and how far people can go to save themselves from abandonment. It may sound like the book was this big angst fest, but it actually wasn’t. The majority of the story is told in a flashback, handled well and giving us a look at what college life was like for Hunter and Devon. I can easily say it was a much freer time for them, and that shows in those flashbacks. They’re full of life and love, and it contrasts sharply with the characters we meet in the first chapter.

To get a chance to look back at them and how they got to that point was a treasure. It was also hothothot at times. Experimentation? Sign me up, please, especially if it’s in the back of a limo!

In the end, after all of that, this book is really about finding yourself again. I appreciate that. We all get lost sometimes.

The cover art is simple but nice. Who doesn’t like a nice muscular back? I certainly will not raise my hand to that question. The stance and what I see does actually remind me of Hunter too, so it’s not entirely just some random hot guy (or maybe it is, but it’s my Hunter).

While I’d love to see more of these characters, I at the very least hope this isn’t Ms. Loren’s last foray into M/M. I’d love to see what she can do with a full-length novel.

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

Book Details:

ebook
Published June 16th 2015 by Intermix
ISBN139780698411036
edition languageEnglish
seriesLoving on the Edge #7.5

Loving on the Edge series are mostly M/F with this exception.

A Sammy Review: The Right Time (Right and Wrong #3) by Lane Hayes

Rating: 5 stars out of 5

“Nate, you’re a control freak with illusions of grandeur. Bad things happen sometimes. Thank you for sharing your confession. I absolve you. You can go on with your life now, and let go of your guilt.”

I chuckled humorlessly. “That easy, eh? Where have you been all these years?”

“Right here waiting to be your hero and set you free. It all comes down to being in the right place at the right time.”

Nate’s always been the one to run from things. He buries himself in work and deals and things that are easy to separate from emotion. This time he runs to Santa Monica, where with the help of his friends, he rents a beautiful apartment. What he doesn’t expect is for a loud neighbor slash landlord to be anything but annoying. Sweet, funny, endearing, so full of life. Everything about Alex pulls Nate in, and like a spark it lights and sets flames.

But if it were all about the fire and passion, life would be easy. That’s not the case. Nate has his own demons to deal with and Alex has to work his way around a religious father and navigating coming out. But there’s something to be said for finding each other at the right time, and their time is now.

“I want to give you something. A song. A piece of music. Something for you to remember me. I don’t want you to hear Beethoven and feel sad about things that never could be. I want to give you… hope.”

OH GOD. First off, let me just put it out there that this book was like a slow serenade for me. It took me a bit, but I began to slowly fall in love with it and then all at once I crashed and was completely and totally infatuated. Kind of like Alex and Nate’s journey. Slow and tentative at first and then BAM.

Where do I even start? Well, I guess the beginning is as good a place as any. This took me a bit longer to get into, but I think that may have had to do with some life stresses more than the story itself. I found Alex completely charming and authentic and though Nate was completely different from him, I was equally enamored with him and the rawness to his character. It may be cheesy, but they just fit together so well. Nate – who is serious and needs help to let loose, Alex – who is so free but needs someone to ground him, to be there and live in the moments with him. They were each others people. Simple as that.

We had gotten glimpses of them in the past, and it all led very nicely into this one. For those who are wondering, we do get some lovely guest appearances from the other boys (including Mack!) It was really a perfect balance of giving the readers some older favorites but building these great new favorites too (but who am I kidding, they’re all favorites).

I also have to say that I think Lane took the thermometer and cranked that puppy up. This was sizzling. I literally heard it crackling as I was reading! From sex in the dark hallway of a club to a jealous encounter in the gym leading to a sexy laundry room encounter and the truly passionate exchanges in between. There were some simple details that really pulled me in, like when one character would frame the others face with his arms and lean forward. It was just so smooth and wonderful.

And then there was the humor, which wasn’t as rampant as one may be used to with Lane’s books, but was still there and had me smiling (like how there’s no real loser in a bet where a blowjob is being exchanged.)

It was like getting a glimpse through thick fog of something profound, something just out of reach. I was so close. And this time, I wasn’t alone.

When it comes to the conflicts that they were dealing with, while the issue between Nate and Julie isn’t revealed until close to the end, I had a good idea of what it was. As a social worker, I see a lot of things, and how they were feeling was so palpable to me, even without the words behind it. I want to make a note that this does not necessarily mean that things were dealt with in the healthiest of ways, but that’s just so human and so real that it touched me. And really, who prescribes how you deal with that situation? I cannot imagine the heavy burden that comes with it. It, like the rest of the story, felt authentic.

My heart felt this story in the last fifty percent like a consistent beat weighing heavily on it. I felt for the characters in my gut and even teared up when that feeling became so incredibly intense (paired with classical music). In a word, this book left me utterly charmed.

I certainly hope it’s not the last we see of these characters. There’s still more to know and learn. But still, thank you Lane for another great story.

The cover by Aaron Anderson is nice and simple. It easily flows with the other covers in the series. I do have a bit of an issue with the placement of the white and how it makes it look like he has a vanishing arm, but it’s still a nice cover.

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

Book Details:

ebook, 220 pages, also in paperback
Expected publication: June 26th 2015 by Dreamspinner Press
ISBN139781634762175
edition languageEnglish
url https://lanehayes.wordpress.com/coming-soon/
seriesRight and Wrong #3

Series: Right and Wrong

A Sammy Review: Out in the Open (Browerton University #1) by A.J. Truman

Rating: 4 stars out of 5

When Ethan thought about it, though, when was the last time he had had real fun? College was supposed to be a party. For him, it’d been more of a dinner party.

Ethan Follett is a good student. He’s passionate about law and has big dreams, and most of the time you can find him studying or hanging out with his small group of friends – never at a party. He spent his time in high school invisible, and that’s mostly how he’s spending it in college, too.

Greg Sanderson throws a wrench into that plan. Greg is disarmingly witty, always trying to sink further under Ethan’s skin, and it’s working. But when he pushes too far, they both get the shock of their life… something that leads to much more.

Things are changing for Ethan. Between public (sex)capades, new friends, and falling hard, he’s not sure how long he can be someone’s dirty little secret.

“Since when did you become so invincible?”

“Since I met you.”

I so enjoyed this. I literally destroyed it, in the sense that once I started to read I could not stop. Come hell or high water (or a 6AM wake up, whatever) I was going to consume this all tonight, and boy did I.

I so fell in love with the characters. I was worried at first that we wouldn’t get to see more of who Greg truly is, but then the author really delivered, especially when they included Sahil in everything. I would’ve liked to get to see even more of Greg’s world, especially with Ethan in it.

ANYWHO. I was surprised at how much fun I had with this. I was wary initially with the stereotypes that Ethan and his friends had towards fraternities/sororities (being a member myself), but with characters like Lorna, I was pleasantly surprised. She summed it up well in saying that some people suck, but not all. Well, her words were much more eloquent, but you get the point.

The cover art by James at GoOnWrite.com is nice and simple. It’s a good-looking guy, so I certainly appreciate that, but it doesn’t say anything special about that story, I’m afraid. Still nice to look at though.

So now that I’ve read this I can go to bed happy and hope for more of Ethan and Greg? Please? I’m quite looking forward to Behind Closed Doors.

Sales Links: All Romance eBook | Amazon | Buy It Here

Book Details:

ebook
Published September 25th 2014 by Smashwords Edition
original titleOut in the Open
ISBN139781310110993
seriesBrowerton University #1

A Sammy Review: In the Shadow of a Hero by Anna Mayle

Rating: 3.75 stars out of 5

“How much is a kiss worth? Or a hopeless relationship?”

Nick shook his head. “With the right person, it would be worth everything.”

Life for Maxwell Thomas has not been easy. As a child, he had some light in the form of his father, Momma D, and the man who took them in and created a family with them, Detective Nathaniel Wraithe. But even those lights were put out by a tragic incident, and now Maxwell lives with blood on his hands.

He’s become a wanderer, one of the many homeless in the city who blends into the brick walls and fire escapes. One night, while on one of those fire escapes, he witnesses a young boy being attacked. Torn, he makes a move to save the boy, but gets a whole lot more than he bargained on and the one choice to step in brings a devil from his past back.

On top of it all, beat cop Nick Kenna has taken an interest in Maxwell, putting him right in the middle of the mess unfolding right before them.

Nick had never been so confused about what he wanted. Everything had been so straightforward before, black and white as the Ford Crown Victoria model police cruisers at the station. Maxwell existed in the gray so completely that Nick didn’t know how to relate to him. Everything was measured on a sliding scale in Maxwell’s mind. The world wasn’t static, it moved and breathed and Maxwell had become more than adept at rolling with the motion of it.

Though it took me a while to actually get into this book, I ended up enjoying myself. It wasn’t necessarily a mystery, as we pretty much knew who was doing what, but it definitely had some elements of suspense that I really appreciate in my books. It also had parts that verged on dark, but never really quite crossed the mark for me, but still, it was a nice read.

Nick was a very lovable character. It was strange for me to read about a kind of clumsy cop who really isn’t cut out to be a detective. Usually in books with a cop as the main character, they are really good at their job, but Nick was more of just a really good guy who wanted to help people and did that through being a beat cop. It was different and a bit refreshing.

Maxwell, on the other hand, was entirely self-destructive and I felt for him. Unfortunately, for some reason, his thoughts in my ebook were not italicized, which was quite jarring for me at first. It felt like the perspective was switching on me super quickly, but I eventually garnered that those parts were meant to be thoughts, but for a while it was quite difficult for me to get used to.

They made an interesting pair, and while I felt their connection, I almost wish I felt it just a bit more. The tension could’ve been written with a bit more thickness, but in general, the story was nice.

One of the parts that I am pretty dissatisfied is the ending. I really wanted to know the resolution of all the dirty cops and see them meet up with the agent one more time. It just felt there needed to be some closure for that element of the story. Still, I’d definitely be on the lookout for more by this author. I feel like she has a lot of great potential.

The cover art by Les Byerley is, unfortunately, not a good indication of the story within. It makes it look like there may be some kind of sci-fi element, but there’s not, and in general, the cover is just not appealing.

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

Book Details:

ebook, 225 pages
Published June 22nd 2011 by Resplendence Publishing
original titleIn the Shadow of a Hero
ISBN139781607353430
edition languageEnglish

A Sammy Review: Closing the Loop by Jane Davitt (a Double Dipping Review)

Rating: 3.5 stars out of 5

“You’re attractive, somewhat needy, and emotionally bruised. Eat and get a good night’s sleep and tomorrow you can begin your holiday properly. I’ll stay out of your way and make it easy.”

“You sound like a doctor, not a lawyer. Got a broken heart? Take two pills with every meal and apply the ointment sparingly.”

Coming off a nasty breakup (and spending the past years with a guy who was not worth even a quarter of that), Lee’s determined to enjoy his vacation – even with said ex on board.

After pulling strings and getting a little lucky (or a lot), he’s able to switch rooms. He’s surprised when he gets to his cabin to find the handsome, demure Cole – the same man he had helped get on the ship in the first place. Maybe it’s a sign, but at first, Cole doesn’t seem too open to the idea of fun, which makes no sense for a cruise like this.

Even though neither of them were looking for any sort of lasting relationship, fate may just have other plans, if they can make it through the roadblocks (or icebergs) it throws in their way.

I had you for no time at all and it’s like you were always there and now you’re not and I’m not handling this well at all.

I’m sad to say that, at the moment, I’m feeling a bit underwhelmed by Closing the Loop. I went into it expecting something kind of fun and light, which isn’t necessarily something I usually go for but was kind of looking forward to, and instead, I got an odd mix of… I’m not really sure what.

There’s some heavy subjects just kind of tucked in there and while they didn’t really bother me, I can’t say I felt they added anything to the plot. It could be that I lacked a connection to the characters on the level where something like what was going on with Cole would’ve made an impact on it. Instead, it all felt so strange and out of place. Most of all, what we did get from those experiences felt like it hovered on the surface. I feel like if you’re going to throw it in, you really need to go all the way with it, and I’m not sure the author succeeded in that for me.

It’s unfortunate, too, because as I’m sitting here, I don’t feel any particular way about the characters in general. I won’t remember them come tomorrow or the next day. What I will remember though is those leather gloves. I can say for certain that I won’t be able to look at leather gloves the same way again. The sex in general was pretty delicious, though not the hottest I’ve read in recent memory. It kind of fit the theme of just okay.

The premise in general was interesting. A gay cruise? Yay. The execution and some of the choices just fell short for me personally, but it may hit for other readers.

The cover art by L.C. Chase is nice and in general fits the story, though I don’t actually recall the characters lounging lack that, and I’m not sure I’d think of Cole as the kind of man to wear bright yellow swim trunks after reading the book. So it works, but not completely.

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

Book Details:

ebook, 150 pages
Published May 25th 2015 by Riptide Publishing (first published May 23rd 2015)
original titleClosing the Loop
ISBN139781626492813
edition languageEnglish

A Sammy Review: Where There’s Smoke (Panopolis #1) by Cari Z.

Rating: 4.5 stars out of 5

I mean, it was one thing to date the guy who’d keyed the principal’s car in high school, but another entirely to get together with someone who was rapidly climbing Panopolis’s Most Wanted list.

Edward Dinges has always been attracted to the super way of life in Panopolis. It’s a place where the Heroes and Villains meet on a regular basis and the society is as much based on presence as it is the economy. He’d always hoped to meet a hero, but he never dreamed of falling in love with a villain, and one day changes those expectations.

He’s just a guy working at a bank. Except that his boyfriend is a Villain with a thing for bombs and he’s got a Hero who seems to not think that having a boyfriend is a valid reason for the answer “no”. It’s just a matter of time until the world of good, evil, and just plain normal collide.

His eyes were fixed on me, glittering points of light within the matte-gray shadows on his skin. “I’m a bad man.”

“You’re a Villain,” I said. “But that doesn’t make you a bad person.”

So here’s the thing… I loved this! Plain and simple, it was just so much fun that I could hardly sit still from all the giddiness it brought me.

From the very first page (or, well, the dedication actually), I was sucked into this amazing and funky world that Cari Z. created. She took bits of reality and bits of all those fun comic books and movies we’ve all seen and then twisted it into this really fabulous story. In doing so, she was able to both reach deep into this theme and hit some of the topics we all wonder about (like who is the man behind the mask who ever fears) and add in some undeniable humor that again, we all think about (like how completely ridiculous some of the stories behind our favorite heroes and villains are).

She does a beautiful job of mixing characters that we traditionally shrug off as villains and making them real and human. They’re no longer these beings so far off that we can pretend are monsters (well, some of them, because I still think Pinball has some issues), but now they’re people like your brother or sister, your parents, your neighbors.

Maybe it’s not that our Heroes are perfect, maybe it’s that our legal system is broken in the same way they are.

The world felt so tangible to me, especially with the blog posts at the beginning of each chapter, which featured a really sincere and blunt look at the underpinnings of society in Panopolis. They were some of my favorite parts, as they really put things into perspective. I kind of want to know who is behind the blog posts, because I feel like they have an interesting story to tell.

I would’ve loved to see more of the relationship building between Raul and Edward in the beginning, but I was so enthralled by the general plot and world that it didn’t bother me too much. I just wanted to see more of the build up for them. We heard about it in passing, but only got a small glimpse, and I hungered for more. I also think the author could’ve pushed it more at times when it came to how conflicting feelings of love are with knowing what your lover does when he leaves, but that’s just me being picky.

I really hope there’s more than just one sequel, because I could get seriously into this world… like, I could bury myself in it and dance with glee. I’m seriously looking forward to the next one. Great read!

The cover art by L.C. Chase is quite nice. It definitely fits the identity of the Mad Bombardier and helps make it easier to picture him as a villain. My only complaint is the high contrast around the pants, but that’s more of a designers nitpicking than anything else. In general, it’s a lovely cover to pair with a kick-ass story.

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

Book Details:

ebook, 88 pages
Published April 27th 2015 by Riptide Publishing (first published April 25th 2015)
ISBN139781626492967
edition languageEnglish
seriesPanopolis #1

A Sammy Review: Apple Polisher (Rear Entrance Video #1) by Heidi Belleau

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

If this is wrong, I don’t want to be right.

I don’t want to be right.

I want to be happy.

Christian Blake has been trying to prove something to his mother for as long as he can remember. It doesn’t matter that she’s not even in the same country, or that he knows she’s wrong. The need to be more haunts him.

His life is all a very delicate balance of situations. He’s going to school to become a teacher, his aunt is sick, and he’s moving into a new place with people he’s never met. He doesn’t expect for the apartment to be full of temptations that could form a crack in his carefully constructed teacher facade. But Max, his roommate, well he’s one of the biggest temptations of all.

And then he’s confronted with more issues – like his aunt’s tanking porn store, and he’s forced to make choices and try to figure out how the balance he’s established can work when he’s a gay man in the teaching profession and working in a porn store. Overwhelming? Just a little.

This wasn’t reckless desire anymore, something Christian only acted upon because his life was going to shit. This was genuine want. He wanted Max. His body, his cock, his smile, his advice, his companionship. All of it.

Going into this, I wasn’t quite sure what to expect. I absolutely loved the premise behind it. Throw something that’s supposed to be forbidden at me (like a teacher working on a porn store) and I’m game. Some of the reviews made me a bit nervous, but I can honestly say that I’m glad I read it.

I found myself so enjoying the story, even when it made me frustrated. Take Max, for example. I know we’re supposed to be frustrated with Christian in this and his issues with being true to himself, but sometimes I struggled with Max’s method of pushing Christian. Was Christian right about the things he did? No, but I’m not sure it warranted Max’s reactions. Still, it worked for me because that’s pretty realistic of relationships. People suck sometimes. We still love them though.

A lot of the events really resonated with me too. Dealing with a family member with cancer, going to school, having all these stresses pile up at once and then having to worry about your image. It all sounds very superficial, but it’s a real problem so many people face, and I appreciated the author not shying away from that – though I do have some little nagging feelings about how the teaching profession seemed to be portrayed as a whole, and that’s part of what kept this rating from being higher.

But the sex, well that was steamy and delicious. I could’ve even stood to have some more, but that’s just me being needlessly greedy. I did feel the bit thrown in at the end with Max’s side career was a bit out of nowhere, but it was hot, so I got over it quickly. I would’ve loved to see it more fully developed though, especially with how Christian’s role in it comes into play. I feel like we only got a taste, and it was a yummy teaser, but I wanted more.

I also really enjoyed the side characters, who we get to see in future books, and that made me even more excited to read the next two books in the series! I can’t wait to see where she takes it. All in all, this was a fun, easy read that made me smile.

The new cover art by Vivian Ng is a lot of fun and compliments the story. After all, sweater vests play a bigger role than you may expect.

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

Book Details:

ebook, 230 pages
Published July 27th 2013 by Riptide Publishing
original title Apple Polisher
ISBN 1626490341 (ISBN13: 9781626490345)
edition language English

Rear Entrance Video Series:

Apple Polisher (Rear Entrance Video #1)

Wallflower (Rear Entrance Video, #2)

Straight Shooter (Rear Entrance Video, #3)

A Sammy Review: Paradox Lost by Libby Drew

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars:

He’d had sex with a ghost, and nothing in his life had ever felt more real.

Reegan McNamara is from the year 2145. He’s a time travel guide with a bit of an addiction to the jaunts. When he gets the chance to go back to 2020 and see a man he considers a hero give a speech, he jumps at it. Everything starts out fine, but when one of the woman purposefully slips from the group, he finds himself in a whole lot of trouble.

Risking life and limb, Reegan heads back to 2020 after getting the other travelers back safely. Each minute he’s there the risk grows as he begins to cause ripples in the continuum of time. He needs help, and fast. That’s when he turns to cop turned P.I. Saul Kildare, a man with many demons of his own. They’re in a race against time, and Reegan needs to find Silvia before it’s too late for both of them. He just never expects to find love in the past, or the pain that comes with knowing they have no future.

This is what you need to understand. Your past isn’t a string of bad choices. Your mistakes don’t weaken you. And a person doesn’t have to save thousands of people to be a hero. He can save two. Or one. He can save himself, and that might be the hardest, bravest task of all.

I’m not typically a time travel fan, granted I haven’t read much of it. I feel like the plot can go cheesy far too easily, but I was pleasantly surprised by this. There was a sense of adventure mixed with heat and a dash of world building. It was a fun ride, enjoyable.

I felt for Saul and the author did a great job of projecting the pain that he associated with alcohol and being around it. I’d get the same feelings in the bit of my stomach that she conveyed for him, and it made me ache for him. The situation with his sister was also salient, though perhaps not as much as the alcoholism.

Reegan on the other hand wasn’t as easy for me to connect to on a personal level, but I did appreciate his sense of adventure and humor. It was so interesting to see him in the past (or, well, future for me), and how marveled he was by the simplest of inventions, or how puzzled he was by the lack of voice commands. It was charming and sweet.

The secondary characters, such as Silvia and Cammie, were also really nice. Two strong females fighting to survive, each in their own way. I appreciated that and how the author didn’t make Silvia out to be a complete victim. She still fought for herself.

I love the futuristic world that Libby Drew created, and I’d actually love to see more of that in her stories. She threw in some great plot points and it’d be interesting to see her do a series of books that stretch across that development of time and some of the historical events she points out here.

Overall, a nice story that kept my interest.

While I’m not a big fan of the colors of fonts on the cover, it does manage to do a nice job of conveying the futuristic and scientific theme that underlies this book.

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

Book Details:

ebook, 228 pages
Published January 27th 2014 by Carina Press
original titleParadox Lost
ISBN139781426897832
edition languageEnglish

A Sammy Review: Cronin’s Key (Cronin’s Key #1) by N.R. Walker

Rating: 4.5 stars out of 5:

Weird and Alec MacAidan tend to go together. From bending bullets to people suddenly turning to ash, his experience on the police force and in life haven’t necessarily been the most normal, but it’s about to get a whole lot weirder when a vampire named Cronin shows up at the station and disappears with Alec in front of a whole bunch of cops.

Alec’s full of questions, but the answers always seem to lead to more. There’s a whole other world out there Alec had no idea about, and Cronin and his coven are all part of that. Alec’s been told most of his life that he’s special, but he just never had this in mind – being fated to a vampire is one thing, but what they discover about just how special he is… well that’s a whole different ball game.

He wanted to be everything to Cronin. And he would be. Everything he needed, everything he wanted, Alec was it.

As Cronin was to him.

N.R. Walker has always been the author I go to when I need a break from reality. her books tend to provide me with easy escapes and easy reads, and Cronin’s Key is no different. When I had time to read, I flew through the pages and thoroughly enjoyed myself.

This book, which I hope is the first in at least a three book series, provides a great introduction to both Alec and Cronin. They both have distinct personalities that Walker does a great job of highlighting. Furthermore, the way that the connection between them builds, despite there being an instant love factor due to fate, is really great, especially the bits of humor that are laced into it. I had so much fun reading their banter and it kept me smiling.

The side characters were really great too. I enjoyed getting to know them as well as how they laced into the story of Alec and Cronin. They didn’t take away from it, but they added greatly to the depth. It presented a whole new dynamic that I certainly appreciated.

But my favorite part, hands down, is the alternate history and therefore the world that Walker created. Instead of just throwing vampires into society as we know it, she took events such as the Black Plague and reimagined them. I was so giddy over this and so enamored by the past that she built. I really hope that this continues in coming books, as it was such a strong element to the book that it’s something I will remember this book for.

My only complaint would be that I wasn’t immediately drawn in at the beginning, and unfortunately some of the lines were a bit cheesy, especially toward the end in battle scenes. It was just that the villain sounded like they were from a badly scripted series, but besides that, it read very well. In general, this was a fun start to a new series that I will look forward to reading more of.

The cover art by Sara York does a nice job of accenting the story, though I am not necessarily the most pleased with it aesthetically. It fits the story, but looks-wise, it’s not that great.

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

Book Details:

ebook, 265 pages
Published March 13th 2015 by Self-Published (first published March 12th 2015)
original titleCronin’s Key
edition languageEnglish
seriesCronin’s Key #1

A Sammy Review: Fallout by Lisa Henry and M. Caspian

Rating: 5 out of 5

“When I was little I used to climb in my treehouse and pretend a dragon kidnapped me and yell for my dad to come and rescue me. I guess he got sick of me pestering him every five minutes, because one day he came home with a plastic sword from the store and said I needed to learn how to rescue myself.” A smile tempered her tone. “So I told him now we had to take turns rescuing me.”

Bastian’s throat ached.

[Name removed] was silent for a long while before she spoke again. “I don’t remember whose turn it is though.”

Bastian and Jack have been friends for more than half their lives, lovers since high school. They have a rhythm, a kind of routine, but as with many relationships, things become rocky. That’s why they head back to Missouri, their home state, to rekindle their romance with a hike that they took as teenagers. That, and Jack needs to do research for his masters.

What unfolds after their short time on that mountain is nothing short of disastrous. The world, once so colorful, is blanketed in dull gray ash. But the ash brings more than darkness with it, and the world as Jack and Bas knew it is a broken, mangled thing of the past.

The water stain on the wall looked like a face. There was a word for that: the way the brain interpreted random shapes and patterns as faces. That had seemed nice once, that people were always searching for meaning around them, for connections with other people. Something spiritual. But he’d be wrong; it was something primal instead, something vicious. Something in an animal’s brain that needed to see a predator in a split-second through any camouflage.

I went into this hoping for something dark and twisted, and I got exactly what I wanted. The world that Lisa Henry and M. Caspian created was nothing short of divine, a true and original conception of a time that we conceptualize as apocalyptic.

There’s something about shows and movies that allow their watcher to experience something that is almost outside their existence, like travelling to another place we hope we never actually have to exist in, but get some sort of sick thrill from watching others suffer within the imaginative doom. This book did that for me. It painted a scenario that I would do anything never to live through, but some part of me ached to touch it and the way it was written gave me that ability to grasp at it, at what the world would look like in a thick layer of ash and without rules. It was a treasure to read.

The authors boldly went into the darkest places of humanity, right to the edge. They looked at the way some humans react to chaos, and how a world without rules creates monsters out of men. Then, they took men, men who we got to know, and showed us just how far they would go to survive. It was beautiful and more than a little bit raw. I have a great deal of respect for the authors who exposed the depths of a human that others are afraid to acknowledge.

Then there’s the way in which they took characters, characters who did absolutely despicable things, and made you feel with them, for them. When Bas was going through emotions, I went through them too – that confusion about a saving grace or the one thing that would push him over the cliff. I felt the way he grasped onto everything that he could just to push ahead, and how the pain was more than just a physical thing for him. He breathed it, and he moved on. He was truly a strong, unapologetic character.

It’s simple, this story is not going to be for everyone. Another reviewer has mentioned that it’s not a romance, and I would agree to an extent. It’s about survival, and about moving forward together, and if that’s not just a little romantic, I don’t know what is. Even in the fucked-up world Henry and Caspian created, there was something tender to that realization. It’s dark and brutally honest, and if you’re not ready to confront that, you’re going to be left with a bitter taste in your mouth. But if you can confront it, well then you’ll be quite pleased.

In sum, this was a wonderful and memorable book in a world that I would love to read more of, after all the ash touched more than just their small area, right?

The cover art by Natasha Snow is simply beautiful and fits the story so well. It has that dark edge and the shadows that reflect in the story.

Sales Links: Amazon Buy it Here

Book Details:

ebook, self published
Expected publication: April 17th 2015
edition languageEnglish

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