A Stella Review: Stones in the Road (Sugar Tree #2) by Nick Wilgus

Rating: 5 stars out of 5

Sequel to Shaking the Sugar Tree  . When his snobbish future in-laws travel all the way from Boston to visit, wise-cracking Southerner Wiley Cantrell learns that gay marriage is not without its disadvantages. Occupied by concerns over the health of his special needs son Noah, a meth baby who was not expected to live and who is now on the cusp of puberty, the antics of Wiley’s outrageous would-be mother-in-law and severely conservative father-in-law strain his relationship with Jackson Ledbetter, a pediatric nurse who poses problems of his own. As their respective families meet and greet, each just as meddlesome and inflexible as the other, North meets South and the fireworks and cultural misunderstandings are plenty.

A tornado blows through the small Mississippi town where Wiley’s mother lives, wrecking his mother’s house and leaving their lives in disarray. Then Jackson’s secret drug addiction comes to light, and Wiley and Noah are devastated. With so many stones in the road, Wiley and Jackson find their dream of becoming a real family falling apart. Though Wiley relies on humor to cope, he’ll need something more to keep his happily ever after from slipping away.

Nick Wilgus made it again!

I can confess I was eager and at the same time scared to read Stones In The Road cause I loved the first one and I was afraid this second installment couldn’t live it up.

I was so wrong! This book is amazing, I loved it more that Shaking The Sugar Tree. This series will stay in my heart for long and I’m so happy to know there will be a third book. I was willing to beg for it. Let’s just hope to read it really soon.

The hard part with books like this one is writing a worthy review and I don’t even know where to start. I should simply say to buy this series and read it.

First, you have to be ready for some gun fire, tornado and pie throwing, but most of all you have to be ready for a story full of love (in every way love can be shown).

I know I’m an emotional person but it was really hard to read. At the end I was in my bed crying all the tears I had, trying to read more, listening to a twelve years old boy breaking my heart.

This is not a book to read when you’re looking for some fun and light reading, but surely it will not boring you for one second. There are no pauses, it’s a continuous of engaging and funny dialogues (sometimes incomprehensible to me since I’m Italian) and so addictive I can’t put the story down for a minute. Some dialogues between Noah and Wiley are hilarious, others heartbreaking. Everything is so real, sometimes it’s almost surreal. Every sentence is serious and at the same time full of humor.

This is exactly the kind of book I love to read, emotional, funny, heartbreaking, full of characters with a lot of background and a huge cast of great second characters. I discovered some dark sides of the (not so) perfect Jackson. I met Jack’s mom and I hated her during all the story and then at the end I loved her so much, because I understood she came to WiIey and his son to rescue all of them. I wanted to have her in my life.

Wiley is our usual Wiley and he is so full of guilt right now it was hard to just look at him in some parts and don’t hug him. He needs to deal with all his fears but his guilt for Noah’s disabilities brings him to almost lose himself and his son. But as Tonya said Wiley is the Superdad of the World. Till the end I asked to myself if Wiley would be able to forgive Jackson and first of all himself.

Shortly Stones In The Road is never boring, always entertaining and so well written I couldn’t put it down. Highly recommended!

Cover artist Anne Cain.I liked the artist followed the idea chosen for the cover of the first book and most of all she followed this story. You can look at the cover and understand exactly what will happen in the book. Perfect but melancholic cause the three Mcs aren’t all together.

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

Book Details:

ebook, 350 pages
Published January 30th 2015 by Dreamspinner Press LLC
ISBN139781632167309
edition languageEnglish
url http://www.dreamspinnerpress.com
seriesSugar Tree #2

Sugar Tree series
Shaking The Sugar Tree #1
Stones In The Road #2

A Stella Review: A Healing Man (Men of Manhattan #5) by Sandrine Gasq-Dion

Rating 4 stars out of 5

Dario Ramos thought he’d left the fighting behind in the war zone when a life-threatening injury sent him home. But a certain Irishman crossing his path everywhere he went convinced him that his biggest battle might be ahead. Tiernan Callahan is a bigoted jerk. Ramos finds himself constantly in the man’s orbit, even in a city as big as New York. The wounded warrior knows all about pain and loss — and that sometimes anger is the only form of release. When Tiernan once again crowds Ramos’ space, his eyes are opened to the possibility of other forms of release.  Tough NYC cop Tiernan Callahan is still mourning the death of his beloved youngest brother, Mason.

Fearing his close-minded family’s reaction, the young soldier never got to tell them his secret — that he was gay and engaged to the love of his life. Tiernan is surviving on anger and guilt. When he continues to run into Dario Ramos, who continues to push his buttons, something inside him snaps. Suddenly, anger isn’t the only emotion he feels.  Two very different men, still trying to heal: Can they come to an understanding and heal each other?

A Healing Man is the fifth book in the Men of Manhattan series by Sandrine Gasq-Dion and so far my favourite. It was sweet funny and sexy. I loved every single word. It’s a beautiful story about loss.

Tiernan is a cop in the NYPD, he lost his brother in war four years ago. Mason was in the closet and when he died Tiernan discovered he was gay and engaged to Casper. He feels betrayed by Mason cause he didn’t trust him to know the most important thing about his life. He’s so angry he is becoming distracted at work and an homophobic asshole. Since his brother died, Tiernan has put his carrier in danger one time too much. His captain decides to assigned him a new partner, Danny, a gay man. Danny is the first one to think Tiernan could be gay, or at least bi.

“Oh God, you’re one of those.”

“What?”

“A paranoid penis. A guy who thinks each and every one of us gays wants in your ass. Trust me, Callahan—I don’t want your ass.”

Dario loses his leg in duty and he is still recovering for alcohol abuse too. He drank to forget all about the years he spent on the field. Now he’s been sober from years and he’s working for the Wounded Warrior Project and as a model. He lives with his girlfriend Maria, until one day he goes home and finds her packing, tired of being with him just for pity.

Tiernan and Dario keep running into each other and what was “hate at first sight” in time become lust/love.
I loved these characters so much, they are amazing, I liked how in the story they grow to be better men, especially Tiernan. He was really hateful in the previous books and I was so proud of him for admit and make up for his mistakes. Of course his parents really sucked but he’ll have a great cast of second characters to support and love him no matter who he’s chosen to love.

There are some very funny scenes, for example when Dario asked gay sex tips to Danny, it was hilarious. And really? Bacon lube? No idea it existed, I’m already hungry.

There are some guys I really want to know more about. I’m hoping in a couple more of books at least in this series. They deserve to have their own HEA.

Highly recommended, this book and the whole series.

COVERT ART by Wilde City Press. I don’t like this series’ covers. They are pretty much the same with a different model for each book. They are good to look at but nothing more.

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

Book Details:

ebook, 137 pages
Published January 21st 2015 by Wilde City
edition languageEnglish
url https://www.facebook.com/authorsandrine.g.dion
seriesMen of Manhattan #5

The Men of Manhattan Series:

A Betting Man (Men of Manhattan, #1)
A Marrying Man (Men of Manhattan, #2)
A Fighting Man (Men of Manhattan, #3)
A Working Man (Men of Manhattan, #4)
A Healing Man (Men of Manhattan, #5)

A Stella Review: Neon White E3 (A Tooth Claw and Horns Chronicle #3) by Wulf Francu Godgluck

Rating: 4,75 stars out of 5.

(Note:I subtracted 0,25 from the full 5 stars cause in the book there is an het sex scene too detailed for my taste)

This is going to be a bloody shit day. The Alpha is missing, for one thing. Raven’s partner Jessy is still struggling to deal with his death. Finding out that his body is missing from the morgue is a big enough shock, so what happens next is going to be unbelievable… Especially for Raven

This review contain spoilers on the Episode 2, so if you still haven’t read the previous books and don’t want spoilers, please don’t read this review. Still, you can go straight and buy this series, you don’t regret it.

In Episode 2 we left Raven and Bla’Gar at the Winter Ball, finally hoping for a future together. Bla’Gar tells our sweet Enforcer that he fell in love with him since the first time they met. Raven is still recovering from the incident with the hound in his parents’ home, an incident maybe not so casual, that left him probably destined to a desk job.

Raven and Bla’Gar parted ways because the demon is called by his pack. Once alone, Raven is assaulted and bitten by a vampire. Jessy, Rave’s partner, is the one to find him after the vampire’s attack. Jess is convinced that the responsible of Rave’s death is Bla’Gar, so she goes to him, but he has no idea his lover is dead and he can’t believe it, he needs proves. When Jess takes the demon to the morgue where Rave’s body is, they will find no one.
Where is Raven? He was murdered so he’s dead, right?

Everything we knew about the characters we learned to love changes again in this new chapter.This new episode was simply fantastic. Apart from the main story with Rave and Bla’Gar as MCs, we have two more stories that will catch your attention and will make you hungry for more.

More or less the first part is focused on Bla’Gar dealing with the kidnapping of Seth, the Alpha of the lycan pack, who just mated with Lucas. We learn more about the lycan pack and his dynamics, and most of all we’ll learn more about Seth’s life, which I suspect (and I hope) will be really important in the next book.

Another part shows us the new relationship between Jess and his mysterious boyfriend James. I say mysterious cause of course you can’t expect him to be human.

As I already said in the other reviews, being so short, I didn’t think to read a series with so well developed second characters, but I was wrong. Especially in this new instalment I learnt a lot about them and I met some new characters.
Loved it! All the way through the story the details are so perfect and brilliant and every new word was full of tension.

Highly recommended!

Cover art by Wulf Francu Godgluck. The covers of the three episodes are pretty much the same with just some little details that fit that episode completely. You’ll understand and realize it if you’ll decide to read the series. Well done Wulf!

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

Book Details:

Kindle Edition, 62 pages
Published January 11th 2015
ASINB00S5BM3OW
edition languageEnglish
seriesA Tooth Claw an

A Stella Review: Neon White E2 (A Tooth Claw and Horns Chronicle #2) by Wulf Francu Godgluck

Rating: 5 stars out of 5

Raven White is finding it very difficult to forget Chetlér – the demon has had a profound effect on him. But the daily grind goes on, bringing with it a new partner, an invitation to the Winter Ball, and an attempt on Raven’s life. No one attending the Ball could have foreseen how it would end – in blood and death.

Warning: contain spoilers of the episode 1

I love this series so much. As I already said in the review of the Episode 1 it’s not my usually genre, so I really have no idea how I fell in love with it and the author too. I love the concept Wulf created. This time too I found myself captured from the story and I couldn’t put it down for a minute.

In the Episode 1 we left Raven and Chetlér first in some hot position (LOL), and just when I was thinking I could have some romance, Bla’Gar screwed it all and sent my poor Raven away. We finally can see the demon hidden inside of him and something else (I can’t say more, just think bigger, people!). We learn more about Bla’Glar’s past and it isn’t a beautiful one, in some parts was really hard to know what he went through.

Raven has a lot to deal with. First of all, a new partner, the sweet Pyro Jessy. I liked her at first reading. She seemed strong and loyal. She’s just one of some new characters we’ll meet in this new episode and for a short like this one is amazing.
Furthermore, Raven is still trying to understand what’s behind his parents death and in one of his rare visit at his old home, he will meet a not so friendly hellhounds.

As in all my favorite romances, tragedy will bring Raven and Bla’Gar together, but just for a little bit, some hot kisses and then… damn cliffhanger! Did I tell you how much I hate cliffhangers? Well in this series every episode ends with one, so if you can, take all the three episodes, you’ll avoid to scream at the tablet. I was so sure my stupid tablet had stolen at least one more chapter and when I realized it was really the end, I wanted to scream to the author… “Where is the next one? You can’t end this story in this way, Wulf!!!”

Highly recommended!

Cover Art by Wulf Francu Godgluck. The covers of the three episodes are pretty much the same with just some little details that fit that episode completely. You’ll understand and realize it if you’ll decide to read the series. Well done Wulf!

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

Book Details:

ebook
Published October 31st 2014 (first published October 29th 2014)
ISBN139781311047151
edition languageEnglish
seriesA Tooth Claw and Horns Chronicle #

A Stella Review: Neon White E1 (A Tooth Claw and Horns Chronicle #1) by Wulf Francu Godgluck

Rating: 5 stars out of 5

It’s been a weird day for Detective Raven White, which is really saying something, as he is the only detective dealing with Paranormal and supernatural cases in Quebec. First there was the stranger in the coffee shop who sucked Raven’s finger and then licked him. Then there was the missing person’s report.  Which is how Raven finds himself paying a visit to Freshán Chetlér, with no clue as to what awaits him… Raven’s life is about to undertake a monumental shift.

I discovered this author reading Of Gods and Monsters: Menoetius ( a free, over 200 pages story, here’s the download link if anyone is interested.

The A Tooth Claw and Horns Chronicle series is really different from what I’m used to read but I liked it so much.

Episode 1 is just 22 pages, 22 amazing pages. It’s not like all these fluffy paranormal stories I like. It’s dark, mysterious and it kept me on the edge till the end (a super hot end!). I honestly have no idea how Wulf could put so much in so few pages. He created a world so interesting I’m hungry for more.

I can’t tell you much about the plot, being so short I would inadvertently add in some spoilers.

What I can talk about is the writing. I found it perfect, as if every word was weighted and put in that spot to give it the right importance and worth. The writing flows on the pages beautifully.

I liked the characters so much. They are very detailed, Raven with his sneezes and Bla’Gar with his possessiveness and all his fears. The chemistry between them is strong and really hot.

I can suggest you to buy Episode 1 and 2 together cause after reading the first one, you’ll need the second so badly you can’t wait to push the one-click button !

COVER ARTIST by Wulf Francu Godluck. Yep he can draw too! The covers of the three episodes are pretty much the same with just some little details that fit that episode completely. You’ll understand and realize it if you’ll decide to read the series. Well done Wulf!

Sales LInks: All Romance eBooks (ARe) Amazon Buy It Here

BOOK DETAILS
Published August 21st 2014 by Smashwords
ebook, 22 pages
ISBN13 9781310312298
Edition language English

Books in the A Tooth Claw and Horns Chronicle series

Neon White E1
Neon White E2 All Romance (ARe) Amazon Buy It Here
Neon White E3 All Romance (ARe) Amazon Buy It Here

A Stella Review: Defying Conventions by Cecil Wilde

RATING: 4 stars out of 5

Danny and AJ have been online friends for years, and secretly in love with each other. When the opportunity to attend a comics convention comes up, they decide to go and share a room. But friendship online does not always translate to friendship offline, and both are anxious about how the meeting will go, and the friendship change, when faced with challenges easily avoided behind the safety of computer screens…

“You’re perfect.” AJ smiled up at him as they walked.

Danny smiled shyly and looked down at their joined hands.”I’m not.” He squeezed AJ’s hand. “But it’s awesome that you’d say that.”

“You’re not literally perfect, but you’re perfect to me,”AJ clarified. “Perfect in all your imperfections.”

Defying Convention is the first Cecil Wilde’s book and the first book with a transgender MCs I read. I’m so glad I got a chance at review it. It was an unexpected surprise.

AJ is a non binary, they don’t want to define themselves as female or male gender. They’re a funny and affectionate geek with pink hair and pink bunny slippers.

Danny is a transman, an insecure young man that suffers from panic attacks.

They’ve been best friends online for five years and this is the first time they meet in real life. The occasion is a comics convention and at the same time their five years anniversary. Most of all they’ve been in love with each other but just haven’t realized they already were in a love relationship, even if they haven’t met before.

I think they are perfect together cause they keep each other safe. Especially AJ is so protective and respectful of Danny’s issues, they understand him like no other can. While the cute Danny still can’t believe AJ is real, sometimes he thought he made them up in his mind. Having bad issues with physical contacts, it is so sweet to see him open up with AJ, who are so touchy feely.

In some ways this book was instructive too. I wasn’t aware of the meaning and use of specific terms in the transgender world.
First of all, the author chose to use they/them/their when they referred to AJ and I admit it wasn’t easy to read. I was ready for the use of it/its but I looked out and I understand why they chose them. Still, sometimes it diverted my attention from the story. Nevertheless, as you can see, I chose to follow the author’s lead and so I used the same pronouns in my review too. I want to respect their choice.

I also appreciated how the author addressed some transgender issue. Reading about Aj being so resigned in their everyday challenges, made me want to hug them. I totally understand it’s a serious subject but this is a light and funny book so I was glad it was handled lightly.

Of course this is not an m/m romance, so you need to be ready to read about sex between a transman and a Non Binary friend (with women’s parts). There isn’t a lot of sex, just one scene and really hot(LOL). Reading only m/m books, I can say I usually am very strict and don’t want woman parts in my books. In this one I was well aware of what I was going to read but it didn’t bother me, cause of course AJ has a vagina but I didn’t think of them as a woman. I was pretty good to try to be neutral as they wished.

I realized in Defying Convention the author chose to tell us not much about how AJ and Danny met online and became best friend, perhaps showing us some particular moments in their online time. They gave us just this brief time frame, these five days needful for them to finally be physically together and maybe try to be a couple. I usually am so greedy I always want to know more about everything. In this case I believe focus on “the now” was the perfect choice, at the end we’re talking about a book of just 65 pages.

I’m a sucker for sweet characters, AJ and Danny were so cute together it was impossible not fall in love with them. Add a good writing and a funny story, I can totally say this book was a winner to me. Highly recommended.

Cover designed by Aisha Akeju: I really like it and it totally fit the book.

Sales Links: Less Than Three Press All Romance (ARe) Amazon Buy it here

Book details:
kindle 65 pages
Expected publication: January 28th 2015 by Less Than Three Press
ISBN 9781620044773
edition languageEnglish

A Stella Review: Moment of Impact by Karen Stivali

Rating: 4,5 stars out of 5

Outside Collin Fitzpatrick’s dorm room is a dangerous place. Beyond his door the students of his small, conservative college think he’s straight, as does his Catholic family who’d disown him if they learned the truth. Inside, he’s safe with his incredibly sexy roommate Tanner D’Amico. Their room makes a perfect place to hide away and fall in love. The moment they cross the line from roommates to lovers, Collin becomes caught between their heavenly passionate encounters and the hellish reality that someone might find out and destroy everything. Tanner’s not used to being so confined, and wants to show the world how much he loves Collin. But Collin’s not sure he’s ready for the impact stepping outside will make.

“I didn’t mean to see Tanner D’Amico’s cock. I really didn’t.”

Let’s start this review at the same way the book does. I was laughing so hard but it’s true, everything started in that way.

Collin and Tanner are friends and roommates for two years. They secretly are in love with each other, but they both think the other is straight. Tanner has a girlfriend, Wendy, and they spend every Monday night having sex, while poor Collin pretends to sleeping in the bed and not listening to their lovemaking. Until one Monday night Collin realizes Tanner is alone.

Tanner has finally found the courage to approach Collin and see if his friend is so straight or maybe there’s a chance for them. He’s determined to be with Collin, but Collin needs to finally step out of his closet. And his closet is an heavy one, full of guilt versus his really Catholic mother. His fear will lead him to almost lose Tanner.

“You deserve better than that. I want you to have better than that. I want you to have everything.”

“I don’t want everything,” he said. My heart fluttered just from the sound of his voice, deep and rich and flowing around me like warm water. “I just want you.”

Discovering that love is stronger and has nothing to do with religions, will give Collin the strength to prove Tanner he’s “that” everything in the right moment of impact. His loss will be great and I hope his mother will be back to loving his son more than before she discovered he’s gay.

The last scene of the book is really emotional.

This book was a real gem to me. I fell in love with Collin and Tanner from the start and at the end of the book I think I fell in love with the author too. I particularly liked how she wrote this story, the words flowed so well, it was impossible to me to put it down for a moment. It was a quick and lovely reading, sweet as I like all of my books. I can’t wait for the second on in this series, Moment of Truth.

I haven’t given 5 stars cause Moment of Impact is part of a three books series, called Moments in Time. Each one of them is a novella and I think that maybe they could have been all put together in just one book. I hope this will be the right choice, cause I expect the second one to be as good as this first book.

I want to add something more. I’m always afraid when an author decides to deal with religious themes. Living in a city like Rome, you can feel the Catholicism in the air, regardless if you believe or not in something or someone. I don’t want to talk about what I believe in, but I can say that I understand and I ache for Collin, I honestly don’t see acceptance around me. I’m proud to live in my country but I feel it’s not ready to be the perfect (or at least the right) place for the LGBT people. It’s too deep in its beliefs. Still, I know, cause I want to believe, that my children will live in that perfect place. I’m not being naive, I’m realistic.

Cover art by Anna Sikorska: isn’t the cover model cute??

Sales Links: Dreamspinner Press eBook All Romance (ARe) Amazon Buy it here

Book details:
Published January 7th 2015 by Dreamspinner Press
ebook, 110 pages
ISBN13 9781632164780
Edition language: English

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