Tag: author L Eveland

Review: Rebel without a Claus: A Winter Holiday MM Tentacle Romance by L Eveland

Rating: 3.5🌈

Rebel without a Claus takes place within a favorite universe of mine, that of L Eveland’s Culinary Creatures. It’s a rare world where all species exist together, with humans being on the lower level just because of their lesser physical abilities. Moth people? Shifters and vampires? Tentacles? It hasn’t mattered because whatever the individual character’s physiology, it’s just the norm here. The author’s writing is just so outstanding at making it believable.

The four books that make up the main series excel on multiple levels, plots, characters, locations, and surrounding those incredible beings with a culture to match them.

I enjoyed the rocky romance of the winter athletes , human Rebel Rhail and tentacled being Vic Amares, as they work their way through misunderstandings and resentments in a snowed in cabin near a Canadian airport. As always Eveland makes the seemingly impossible seem real and commonplace, their stories and frustrations become relatable as does their pentup sexual feelings towards each other.

But what I am missing here is how the author would have given the reader an idea of what the community and culture that Vic Amares comes from. We get bits and pieces but nothing like the rich depiction that I have seen before. I would have been delighted if more of that, and any type of cultural connection to have been pulled in the relationship.

It leaves this story with some of the best examples of that universe (like the characters) but missing the richness of the whole.

L Eveland is an auto read and this is a good read. Add it to your list this season.

Tinsel and Tentacles (11 books)

◦ Jingle Bells and Elder Gods by Kiernan Kelly

✓ All I Want for Christmas is Tentacles by Chloe Archer ❤️🫶

◦ Tentacles and Other Stocking Stuffers by Delaney Rain

◦ Tentacles Rock by K.C. Carmine

◦ A Sucker for Christmas by J.P. Sayle

◦ Kraken Klaus by Charlotte Brice

◦ Twelve Days of Squidmas by H.L. Hiers

◦ It’s a Tenta-ful Life by Amanda Muewissen

✓ Rebel without a Claus by L Eveland

✓ Cthulhu for Christmas by Meghan Maslow ❤️🫶

◦ Tentacle Wonderland by Reese Morrison – Jan 1,2024

Buy Link:

Rebel without a Claus: A Winter Holiday MM Tentacle Romance

Blurb:

I’m stranded in the middle of nowhere with my rival on Christmas eve. There may only be one bed, but he’s got six frustratingly attractive tentacles…

Rebel

Getting snowed in with Vic Amares is a nightmare come true. He’s been nothing but a pain in my ass ever since he appeared in the league with his ridiculously talented tentacles, that handsome smile, and those dimples…

I hate everything about him. It’d take a Christmas miracle for us to find common ground. Unfortunately for me, all we’ve got is this cabin we’ve been forced to share out in the middle of nowhere.

Yet there’s something about him I find undeniably sexy, despite his obsession with a holiday I detest. I can’t let him find out I’m attracted to him. If I can survive his constant attempts to cheer me up, his singing, and his cooking, I might just be able to live this down.

Vic

Snowed in with the Rebel Rhail? I can’t believe my luck! He’s been my inspiration, my hero, and my crush for years. I’ve even been working on a new snowboarding move just to impress him.

No matter how many times I’ve tried to strike up a conversation with Rebel, he’s remained distant, but I’ll do anything to win.

This holiday snowstorm is my chance to win his heart once and for all. I have a plan to show him how much he means to me.

If he thought my tentacles were hard to beat on a snowboard, just wait until I show him what I can do with them in the bedroom…

Rebel without a Claus: A Holiday MM Tentacle Romance is part of the Tinsel and Tentacles multi-author collaboration and a complete standalone but set in the same universe as L Eveland’s Culinary Creatures series. You should expect a tale of sports rivals forced to share a cabin with only one bed, an unexpected holiday snowstorm, and more talented tentacles than you can shake a snowboard at!

Want more tantalizingly tentacular winter holiday romances? Grab the whole series!

an MM sports rivals to lovers romance between a sweet, Christmas loving tentacle monster and a human grinch. While the story is relatively low angst, Rebel is somewhat mean to Vic at the beginning. I promise, he comes around.”

— Rebel without a Claus: A Winter Holiday MM Tentacle Romance by L Eveland

Culinary Creatures universe story

Review: Brewtiful’s (Culinary Creatures Book 4) by L Eveland

Rating: 5🌈

Brewtiful’s is the heartwarming, wonderful finale story in L Eveland’s fantastic Culinary Creatures series. I’m so sorry to see this series end.

Bluz, the preceding novel, is a small masterpiece of storytelling that combined a old musical sounding style of Appalachian dialect , a vanishing American mountain voice, with a vivid location, mouth watering BBQ and layered memorable characters. It remains a top tier book for me.

Now Brewtiful’s, with characters, especially one, that could have been written as tragic but end up as triumphantly beautiful and with a joyful ending that brings this series to a satisfying conclusion.

Why have I fallen in love so quickly with this story? I’ll start with one of the main characters. Tripp Powers.

Tripp Powers has the emotional power to move the reader to tears but it won’t be immediately evident why. The clues, his halting words as he assembles his thoughts and sentences to give voice to his own inner feelings. It’s those beautifully written scenes that will carry Tripp’s sometimes jumbled excited messages that will melt the reader’s heart and that of Nicola Lightwing, a mothman he meets in Las Vegas.

You see Tripp is suffering from an injury that comes from being a ex-NHL hockey player. He’s got head/brain trauma from taking a hit. He’s in forced retirement, has memory issues, migraines, and more. He’s lost his passion and focus. But in an extraordinary way, found a new one.

Tripp is real, heartbreaking, and inspiring. And he wakes up married.

To a mothman.

Yes it’s a wake up married, bi-awakening, hockey romance in a paranormal world with antennas and it’s fabulous.

Tripp has a well written bi-awakening journey along with finding true love. Done with another character, Nicola Lightwing, a mothman. We met Nicola before in Bluz but he comes fully into his own here. He’s a successful agent who sacrifices his private life for his clients and now , because of an impulsive decision, has the potential to make changes for himself and Tripp.

Eveland’s story weaves a gentle reminder that sometimes the simplest thing can bring the best possible outcome to a person’s life. A cup of coffee, an act of kindness, a smile or even a positive saying to start the day with. Or find true love and happiness.

The author gives the characters depth of personality, intelligence, interesting uses of otherworldly sexuality, love in all its forms, and as always, a fabulous recipe at the end. Never miss out on those.

L Eveland’s Culinary Creatures is four books and I’ll always regret it isn’t more. But those four books are on auto reread for me, the last two in particular. The entire series is a must read for just splendid storytelling.

Pick up the series today and prepare for some joy in your day.

Culinary Creatures with great recipes at the end of each story:

✓ Brimstone #1

✓ Beefcake #2

✓ Bluz #3❤️+

✓ Brewtiful’s #4 ❤️-finale

Buy Link:

Brewtiful’s: A High Heat, Low Stakes MM Monster Romance Novella (Culinary Creatures Book 4)

Blurb:

They say what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas…unless you accidentally marry a mothman.

My name’s Tripp Powers, former NHL star, notorious playboy, and aspiring coffee connoisseur. My plan? Open a chain of coffee shops to brighten everyone’s day. All of that was going according to plan until I woke up in bed with a man.

And not just any man, but Nicola Lightwing, a mothman!

It’s a mistake we’re both keen to undo as fast as possible until we realize we have a lot in common. Nicola is smart, suave, and almost as obsessed with coffee as I am. With his help, I might even be able to make my coffee shop dreams into reality.

There’s only one problem. Until today, I was sure I was straight. Yet I can’t help but want to drink Nicola up, especially when he’s promised he’s good to the last drop.

Can I resist his bold advances? Or is a lifelong romance brewing?

• Publisher: Grim Cat Press LLC (November 15, 2023)

• Publication date: November 15, 2023

• Print length: 138 pages

Review: Body Count (Wayward Sons Book 1) by L Eveland

Rating: 4.5🌈

The blurb for the book is what drew my attention immediately. The subject matter and characters of L Eveland’s series are so dark and detailed in their histories that my mind made a swift connection to another author’s terrific books that offer up the same type of murderous psychopaths (Onley James’ Necessary Evils series).

I was so excited to see what Eveland did with this terrifying type of character and found family, and how given the same traits and motivations, what twists this author took their story.

It doesn’t take long to see the differences and similarities. When you are writing a psychopath realistically, there’s defining characteristics built into the personality. That includes an inability to understand love as a normal person would. None of the characters in this book, and I expect, the series, will fall within the category of normal human emotional development.

There’s a long list of trigger warnings at the beginning of this book and if a reader is even a tad squeamish, this isn’t the story and series for you. This is dark fiction about psychopaths killing people, and maybe eating them.

The family that forms the basis for the individuals is a very different and unique group of people. One, it’s a polycule, the likes of which I haven’t read about in a story before. Those strong men and women ,who have big backgrounds of their own, are people who the reader will get to know more about over the series. From them comes the adult children , natural and adopted, who will get their own stories. Their legal business? A funeral home.

Wayward Sons’ Body Count begins with adopted son, mortician River Laskin on the prowl in a sketchy dive bar at the edge of town. One of the book’s two pov’s, his voice is telling the reader of his need for violence but not the a clear target until he spies a group of men and a collared youth cowering at their feet. That’s our second main character, Theo of no last name.

Theo is a victim of child trafficking from a very early age, 5 years old. He’s been in the custody of the same trafficker since he was sold and his mental state is that of someone who has been broken down to the barest extent that even when River “frees” him, Theo finds he can’t cope with his new situation and world that’s open to him.

Nor can River bring the person he is have the empathy to help him but he does have the support system.

Eveland does a remarkable job getting into the headspace of both men as they navigate through the process of their relationship and Theo’s trauma. That it happens to include finding out that the murderous psychopath who rescued you is part of a larger group of people who exhibit a range of abnormal psychological disorders which are slowly revealed in the book. That’s in addition to the mafia family connections they rely on heavily.

I’m actually astonished that Body Count moves along so quickly and isn’t weighted down by the author getting dragged into clinical details about the different disorders the brothers have been diagnosed with. Whether it’s the triplets’ schizophrenia or Shepherd’s DID, multiple personality disorder, it’s folded into the narrative in such a way that it’s natural for Theo to hear it, and not a info dump. Eveland’s narrative flow is due to such great depth and writing choices in how these elements are handled.

Theo and River’s relationship is rife with trigger potential for readers, however much it makes sense within the dynamics that Eveland is framing out for the couple. Does Theo understand the concept of consent? Maybe, it’s a very gray area. Would River be able to let him go? Maybe not. So how free is he? There’s pain play involved here but it’s brought into the equation in a way that makes it easier to see how much trauma Theo is trying to process.

Towards the end I felt that Theo’s “recovery “ was more advanced than an actual traumatized person in this situation would be. Maybe not.

Theo became a member of a family of traumatized individuals who were able to support him and his unique relationship with River.

Eveland took a dark topic and even more twisted characters and is giving them a very interesting look in this series, complete with mushrooms with have a revolting starter. Word to the wise. Don’t eat anything with mushrooms from this family.

I’m so sorry that I have to wait until next Spring for the second installment in this series. I could have easily binged this had the books been written.

It’s an absolute recommendation. But only for those who want to read dark fiction and appreciate the more murderous of natures in the characters we read. The list of trigger warnings is at the beginning and it’s appropriately long. Read them first before making your decision. It includes torture, child sexual abuse, murder, and hints of cannibalism.

Wayward Sons:

✓ Body Count #1

◦ Skin Deep #2 – April 30,2024

Buy Link:

Body Count: A Dark MM Romance (Wayward Sons Book 1)

Blurb:

Death is his business, and I live to serve.

Theo

Mortician River Laskin is a monster, a narcissistic sociopath with blood on his hands, but he’s also my savior.

When he rescues me from a human trafficking ring, the last thing on my mind is vengeance. I need to pull my life together and figure out how to survive in a world where I don’t exist. Without someone to tell me what to do, I’m lost. River is all I have to cling to, the only thing that makes sense in this terrifying new world.

But he and his family of murderous psychopaths have other plans, mafia connections, and murder on their minds.

River Laskin

I knew from the moment I saw him that Theo was mine. Mine to protect, mine to break, mine to put back together again.

My favorite toy.

I will use every resource at my disposal to find the men who hurt him and make them pay, whether he wants me to or not. It’s not up to him.

I’ll burn every bridge, turn over every stone, dig up every body until I get what I want.

And what I want now is vengeance for Theo. The Devil himself couldn’t stop me. I dare him to try.

Body Count is the first novel in the Wayward Sons series, a series standalone of dark MM romances that follows the Laskin brothers as they battle their inner demons and find love.

Review: Bluz (a Culinary Creatures novel) by L Eveland

Rating: 5🌈

Well, Bluz is by far my favorite in an extraordinary paranormal series of magical depths. In Bluz , L Eveland has given this story so many riches in terms of narrative structure and character development that its almost tactile atmosphere could be overlooked for its sublime world building.

It’s inherit within its location, its beings, the culture in this story in a way that is so unique and deeply personal to both characters but especially one. That’s Greyson Boggs,human ,guitarist, a blues musician with an old border collie, Simon. Turns out Simon is also his guide dog as Greyson been going blind since early adolescence from retinitis pigmentosa, another perfectly implemented element.

But that’s just the beginning to the layers of this man. Here’s his voice.

“Footsteps crisscrossed in front of me, busy folk shuffling to places they didn’t want to be. I used the steady beat as my percussion, counting out a one, a two, a five-six-seven-eight while the guitar cried into the humid morning, conveying all the words I couldn’t.

I sang about the places I’d been from the deep dark hollers in rural Georgia to that summer I rode the rails all the way down to New Orleans. I sang about the south, about crawdads and creeks, collard greens and running from the law. The words came with no effort, shaken free from where they rattled around in my head with no pre-planned pattern. “

There’s a particular melodic progression to that voice, one that the author is also born with. And one that’s unfortunately disappearing from the world. It’s the sound and vernacular of spoken Appalachian English language, one of the oldest nonnative spoken languages here in the US. Specifically, the Appalachian dialect or as it’s also known, Smokey Mountains Holler dialect, with its colorful imagery, slow linguistic patterns, and changing tones /spoken words. It’s a language that might even feel a titch familiar, such as where I might say “I took the dog out”

it becomes :

“One night that dog was a-beggin’ and a-cryin’ to go out.”

*In The Language and Life Project that set about documenting the dialects, one man said of his talk “…it’s more like singing than talking…”

That’s pure Appalachian. A dialect so beautifully suited for an Appalachian blind blues singer named Greyson Boggs and his old dog, Simon, that it makes me question that this man is really fictional.

Except, of course, for the werewolves, demons, incubus, and such.

But they get the same layered treatment. A pack in financial straits and leadership issues. A storm coming, a real mixed community to meet, which includes a homeless shelter,imminent storms, and the raw reality of those who live life on the margins. That’s very much an important part of this story and Greyson’s as well.

Gaston, the chef who returned home to help out his recovering father and the pack’s restaurant, Bluz, is a marvelous character. Eveland did a wonderful job in giving him his own issues to work through and challenges to overcome. Gaston is lovely. But he’s next to the powerful Greyson. And he is one of those sharp shining personalities whose life becomes important to the narrative and the reader because of who he is personally. We care so much for him that it’s hard for anyone else to measure up. It’s that voice.

Gaston has a pansexual coming out, not that he wasn’t already, but out to his parents and pack. Another nice aspect of the story because there so many equally strong emotional things that are going on in the story. That includes homelessness. A camp where people/beings live , homeless shelters and what it must feel like to have no where to go when a major disaster is occurring. And it’s done in a matter of fact way that drives home the facts about this aspect of society even more.

There’s a happy romantic journey with communication, some very sexy mate bonding, and very familiar faces from previous books that show up at the end for a satisfying conclusion. Love it.

And through it all, runs songs, and southern cooking. BBQ and the Blues. Do not miss out on all the recipes at the end of each book, this time for pork butt. So yummy. Put on some Etta James or Bill Whithers and grill you some BBQ.

I’m highly recommending Bluz (a Culinary Creatures novel) by L Eveland. This series just continues to get better and expand on the topics within a paranormal realm. Fantastic.

• YouTube: The Language and Life Project : see video

Culinary Creatures:

✓ Brimstone #1

✓ Beefcake #2

✓ Bluz #3

◦ Brewtiful’s #4 – April 30, 2024

Buy Link :

Bluz: A High Heat, Low Stakes MM Monster Romance Novella (Culinary Creatures Book 3)

Blurb:

No one cooks like Gaston, and I’m hungry like a wolf.

Eight years ago, I missed my chance to be with the love of my life. Now, Gaston is back in town to rescue his pack’s troubled bar and grill, Bluz. He’s keen to rekindle things between us, but I’ve still got the blues over how it all went down before.

Gaston’s got a whole life out west full of fast cars, fancy dinners, and famous friends. He claims he’s ready to settle down, and that his wolf has chosen me, but I’m just a country boy, a drifter. Gaston is refined and cultured. I don’t fit into his elegant lifestyle, even if our nights together have been sizzling hot.

His wolf wants me, and I want him, but I’m running out of time to decide. Can I put our troubled past behind me before I lose him forever? Or will our relationship finally go up in smoke?

Bluz is a smoking hot and sticky sweet second chance MM romance between an anthropomorphic werewolf and a visually impaired blues singer. This third installment of the Culinary Creatures series can be read as a standalone, and features a delicious BBQ recipe for you to try at home!

*Appalachian language: The Language and Life Project

Review: Beefcakes (a Culinary Creatures novella) by L. Eveland

Rating: 4.75 🌈

A sequel to Brimstone, Beefcakes expands on the original by making the focus the short notice celebrity wedding of the famous chefs of the first novel. But while we get those characters and the event, they are peripheral elements here.

Our new characters and romance are fantastically , in a twist, in the “supporting” roles to that event. Ones the wedding planner and the other the wedding baker.

L Eveland really goes all in here with Beefcake and gives us a romance of surprises, depth, and remarkable storytelling. It’s cupcakes, minotaurs, anxiety, porn, kink, and true love. Really, the elements contained within this storyline should overpower each other but instead Eveland uses them to enhance each character’s depth of personality.

The author also uses them to chart the relationship development of Ezra Higgins, highly anxious human wedding planner, and exuberant Minotaur Matteo Reyes, wedding baker.

I absolutely loved these two characters, so completely different, disregarding their species for the moment, but matching in their emotional needs for each other and in their chemistry.

Eveland has two areas of special significance here. One is the treatment of Ezra’s social anxiety disorder. We get to see its origins in his mother’s death, how it took over his life, and how with the help of his therapist, he has been able to get back to running his business. It’s a sensitive subject and the author does a terrific job in giving the reader a small glimpse of what it might be like living with the disorder.

The other element is Matteo’s kink that involves cooking and voyeurism. I really won’t go further with the explanation except to say I was wondering how the author would resolve this situation between Ezra and Matteo myself. What a fabulous solution! I loved it!

I throughly loved this entertaining tale of paranormal romance and a stressful wedding to end all weddings. The only reason it didn’t hit the 5 rating was that while all the other characters were passionate about their careers, Ezra wasn’t about his. He was only doing what was expected of him. And at the end , he was extending his time with Matteo without saying exactly what he was doing.

That left a great an impression of things being unsettled a bit . I wish Eveland had been a tad more finished here. But maybe that because there’s a third book in the works. Bluz, is coming. Werewolf BBQ anyone?

So I’m happily awaiting the third in this wonderfully wacky culinary series. Definitely recommending this and the one prior. Read them in order to understand the characters, relationships, and universe.

Culinary Creatures:

✓ Brimstone #1

✓ Beefcake #2

◦ Bluz #3 – December 31,2023

Note: don’t miss out on the recipe at the end!

Buy Link:

Beefcakes: A High Heat, Low Stakes MM Monster Romance Novella (Culinary Creatures Book 2)

Description:

Wedding planner Ezra Higgins is having a bad day. He’s lost his phone, he’s got six weeks to plan the biggest wedding of his career, and now the minotaur baker won’t stop flirting with him.

It’s enough to make anyone’s anxiety spike.

But the minotaur owner of Beefcakes bakery, Matteo Reyes, has an oddly calming effect on Ezra, and he can’t stop thinking about him, no matter how hard he tries.

Matteo is sweet as salted caramel and twice as hot, but he’s off limits, especially since they have to work together.


Pulling off a televised celebrity wedding in less than ninety days? Doable. Resisting Matteo’s candy-coated charm in the process? Ezra can’t have his cake and eat it too…or can he?

Review: Scales and Song (Monsters in My Bed #2) by L Eveland

Rating: 3.25🌈

Scales and Song is the second in L Eveland’s Monsters in My Bed series and the third I’ve read so far.

It’s also the book that’s left me with the most mixed feelings about the storyline and writing of the novels of this series.

Scales and Song deals with a character outside of the original quartet of vets dealing with the aftermath of a IED explosion in Afghanistan that killed everyone but themselves in their unit.

It’s still got a traumatized soldier at its heart, but one that came from the military’s Elite Specimen Containment Unit, the one that captures , tortures , experiments on , and kills alien/nonhuman beings. Like Ollie the Krampus. That’s where the reader first encountered soldier Phoenix Walker, first as an antagonist in Kissed by the Krampus. In that book, Walker’s one of the unit sent to recapture Ollie. After he’s captured himself by Kringle and Ollie, is rescued, then undergoes a change in attitude, flipped sides and helped save Ollie and Kringle.

I’m not sure I liked him totally here in this story. Eveland presents Walker as a troubled, traumatized soldier, AWOL from his unit due to the events of the previous book.

It’s Walker’s personality that I found hard to connect to. I understand that he’s had a lot of issues to work through but his fall back to denial, anger, and frustration prohibits us from getting emotionally invested. It’s not until later, we learn that included in all the other emotional baggage Phoenix is carrying is self loathing about his sexuality, being gay. But it’s so late in the story to help us understand why he is acting so aggressively towards his friends and Bud.

So his poor treatment of his friend, who is sheltering them , of Bud, ends up being just confusing to the reader instead of an element that helps us engage with his character.

Another real issue for me here is a lack of balance in the exposition with Bud. The author gets so caught up with the exploration of Bud’s sexual organs, how they are used, especially when it comes to sex with Walker , that Bud’s natural history, the world Bud came from is left lacking. It’s troubling because Eveland starts to give us real insight into Bud’s life there. That their species are colorful creatures, with flamboyant color the needed element to attract mates. And that Bud’s lack of color made it unlikely that they would survive in their society, that finding a mate is a necessity there.

Also Eveland started to describe the life within Bud’s habitat, the predators, including a sentient one that hunts for entertainment. And that Bud’s race “eats” by photosynthesis. But has a hive existence. So we get a hodgepodge of facts about the species and nothing more? They are loyal and mate for life? Where’s all this coming from?

Does a photosensitive winged being have a less or better ability to eat given their lack of accepted pigmentation on that planet?! Bud was attacked by the ferocious carnivorous predator on their world, did something happen to them? Why have jaws at all when they use wings to eat? Questions!

But it’s always back to the sexual activity between Walker and Bud before we get any further information.

And the issues don’t stop there. They are hiding from the military, the same ones, they escaped from. That is an intense section here. And we see people from the original four show up to assist.

Chappie, who’s lost his faith. And of course, Ollie and Chris will make an appearance.

Which will bring up inconsistencies in between what Walker says happened here in that story and what we read happened in that story when he was a “temporary” guest or prisoner.

They aren’t big things like the change in Hotdog’s RL last name from one book to his, but it’s enough of a reoccurring one that I wonder why the author’s not taking care to have someone catch these errors.

And finally, the ending of poor Parker. It was swift, and the ending honestly didn’t make any sense. Crystals? It felt rushed , as though Eveland wanted to get through this part of the arc and onto the real happy end with Bud and Walker.

For me, Scales and Song (Monsters in My Bed #2) by L Eveland was a bit of a miss and a mess. It was full of promise but with all the elements, characters, and plot lines, they never felt complete and in depth. That they gelled together.

Read it if you like completing a series, but this really exists outside of our four vets and their stories.

Monsters in my Bed series:

✓ Kissed by the Krampus #1

✓ Scales and Song #2

◦ Hearts and Halos #3

✓ Lassos and Lace #4

Buy Link:

Scales and Song: M/M Paranormal Fantasy Monster Romance (Monsters in my Bed Book 2)

Description:

We were supposed to protect the world from monsters, not become them.

All I’ve ever wanted was to protect the people I love. That’s why I joined the military’s Elite Specimen Containment Unit.

When I learned they were experimenting on sentient monsters, however, everything changed.

Now, I have a new mission: protect a scaly winged monster named Bud and escort him to somewhere he’ll be safe from my superiors.

Yet, Bud’s so sweet and perfect, I can’t help but fall for him, even though I know it’s too dangerous for us to be together. It’ll be safer for us to go our separate ways, especially when we’re being hunted.

But I’ve only got so much willpower…

Though Scales and Song is the second book in the Monsters in my Bed series, it can be read as a standalone novel. It features a closeted and traumatized special forces soldier, the sweet cinnamon roll monster who loves him, and a HEA. Please see the interior for content warnings.

Review: Lassos and Lace (Monsters in my Bed #4) by L Eveland

Rating: 4.75🌈

‘Oh, sweetie. You have no idea just how loud I can be.

“You need to work on your people skills, Brokeback Bunny.”

Yes, this author had me at Brokeback Bunny!

L Eveland has such a way with these characters and their dialogue.

I’m talking about a traumatized group of vets, four survivors of a IED blast in Afghanistan, that destroyed their convoy. It’s left one with debilitating PTSD, one a double amputee, one whose life is scrambled, and a Chaplain who’s lost his faith.

Each has his own story in which he‘s met a being , a monster, and fallen in love. The themes flowing through each romance has explored what defines a monster, the military that push for experimentation on paranormals, on orders to war or being’s because of their unique abilities?

Mind you this is an alternate version of the world, with a rift.

The themes are well written, the characters beautifully executed. Especially here.

The human character is one Robert “Hotdog “ Smith. He’s a double amputee, having lost both legs in the blast. Taylor has written layer upon layer for Hotdog.

We go through his depression, his inability to leave his house. His frustration with his prosthetics, that not enough rehab, etc, reddened stumps, all makes him believable. But Robert becomes more so when we see that he’s loves to wear lace.

And so much more. What an amazing character. What a revelation before us.

And equal to him is a stunner of the Monster of the book.

Robert and friends have traveled to Jackalope Ranch. I don’t know how many have seen a so called touristy thing from out west called a Jackalope. Jackrabbit and an antelope combined.

Here it’s real. The being is a jacqeroi, Hopper Meadows, owner of the ranch. With a surprise of a herd!

He’s bitter about humans for good reason, an amputee himself, and has a devastating history.

Everything about him, Robert , and this story is moving, emotionally charged, sensitively handled considering the elements, and so well written.

Two men with missing limbs, both with memories of the past that haunt them. Eveland ‘s story lets both slowly start to trust and understand each other first, then move forward with a relationship, along with a ranch and land full of magical creatures and surprises.

I just love this story and couple.

And the author.

I’m so hooked.

Yes, absolutely recommend!

More pls.

Monsters in my Bed series:

✓ Kissed by the Krampus #1

◦ Scales and Song #2

◦ Hearts and Halos #3

✓ Lassos and Lace #4

Buy link:

Lassos and Lace: M/M Paranormal Fantasy Monster Romance (Monsters in my Bed Book 4)

Description:

Save a dragon, ride a cowboy is about to become my new motto.

After hearing about a dragon ranch and monster haven out in Wyoming, I set off on a road trip with my roommates and two goals: pet a dragon and live out my cowboy riding fantasy.

There’s just one problem: Hopper Meadows, the monstrous owner of the Jackalope Ranch. He’s got a chip on his shoulder the size of Texas and seems to have it out for me in particular. Sparks fly the moment we meet, and not the good kind.

Even though he hates me, I can’t get him out of my head. Fantasizing about Hopper is the only thing keeping me sane after being cut off by my rich parents, and abandoned by my roommates. If I’ve got to be stuck in the middle of nowhere for a week, might as well enjoy the view, right?

But there’s trouble brewing on the ranch. When I find myself pulled into a vendetta thirty years in the making, and the mastermind behind it might just be the only thing Hopper and I have in common…

Lassos and Lace is an MM monster romance featuring a sassy double amputee twink who loves drag, and a stoic jackalope-based monster rancher. It is highly recommended that the books in this series be read in order.

Review: Brimstone (a Culinary Creatures novella) by L. Eveland

Rating: 4.25🌈

L. Eveland was a new author for me when I stumbled across the covers for this series. Another example of never underestimating the power of great graphic cover design .

Then come the blurb. Food, high grade restaurant , cooking, and demon chef. Like that doesn’t confirm something I’ve suspected for years! I was definitely checking it out.

Human Chef Adam has worked and strived and cooked his entire life in order to achieve his dream of becoming a professional chef and working with the universally renowned restauranteur and chef, Chef Inzo Amoretti, owner of the famous 3 star Michelin restaurant, Brimstone.

Chef Inzo, an immortal incubus, hired the immensely talented human chef, Adam, when the passion Adam has for his profession and the meals he creates, ignited Chef Inzo Amoretti ‘s flagging energies and own passions .

But the the presence of Adam in Inzo’s restaurant reveals something far greater, and dangerous to them both.

Eveland has delivered a delicious, kinky paranormal romance. It’s awash with sensuality, threaded with the riches of the senses through foods, sauces, aroma, differing sexual desires and kinks. The author doesn’t fail the romance, powering up an equally fierce love for each other as well as all the high quality ingredients and sensational flavors .

Be prepared to drool over the preparation and recipes of the new dishes that have unexpected touches inspired by Adam and his demon Chef.

All the above combines into a mate bond tale of lusty romance and satisfying relationship, at least in that we have only a few questions left unanswered about their life spans together.

This story will happily continue into the next book, Beefcake. That will feature another couple and a wedding cake.

Can’t wait.

This is a definite recommendation!

Culinary Creatures:

Brimstone #1

Beefcake #2 – Dec 31, 2023

Buy Link:

Brimstone: A High Heat, Low Stakes MM Monster Romance Novella (Culinary Creatures Book 1)

Description:

One taste is never enough.

Becoming Brimstone’s head chef is a dream come true, even though I’m the only human on the staff.

Working for Chef Inzo Amoretti? Not so much. Sure, he’s a talented genius and distractingly gorgeous, but he’s also a demanding incubus with impossibly high standards, especially when it comes to me. It seems nothing I do in the kitchen is good enough for Chef Inzo.

Yet he’s so sinfully attractive, I can’t stop thinking about him, even when he’s shouting at me.

Falling for my boss is bad enough, but for an incubus? Is it worth putting my soul on the line for a little taste of heaven?

Brimstone is the first book in the Culinary Creatures series. Each novella in this series is a standalone MM monster romance that features high heat, low stakes, and a delicious recipe you can try at home!

Review: Kissed by the Krampus:(Monsters in my Bed Book 1) by L Eveland

Rating: 4.5🌈

Eveland is a new author for me so I did what I always do with new authors I enjoy. Read everything they’ve written. And I’m so happy that I did because I discovered Eveland’s Monsters in my Bed series.

A paranormal fantasy Monster series, it starts at its heart, a group of young soldiers, on duty on Christmas Eve in Afghanistan, heading from from base camp to another when their convoy hits IED’s buried in the road. Only 4 of them survive. The emotional and physical wounds are deep,brutal and for some, permanent. Survivor’s guilt, PTSD, depression and grief runs deep throughout the men. One loses both legs , another, the chaplain, his faith.

One of the themes explores the discussion of whose should be labeled a monster in this universe? Those generals and the military in this world exploiting both humans and nonhumans for power and control or is it the paranormal beings labeled Monster because of their appearance, languages, and abilities?

Each story take one veteran, all still carrying the pain and burden from that day’s trauma in different ways, and pairs them up with a Monster or nonhuman being .

In Kissed By The Krampus, the vet is one Chris Kringle. Angry, depressed, his PTSD overwhelming him to the point he can’t keep a job, and is alienating those closest to him, the three friends who survived with him. It’s Christmas Eve and they are checking up on Hotdog, the double amputee who’s become a hermit, never leaving his house.

That night Chris meets his monster. The Krampus his grandmother warns him will be about that night. But nothing turns out as you expect. The Krampus isn’t the mythical beast of scary stories but a lonely, sad being with a painful past history.

Together, after much mental and emotional sharing , they help each other understand the heart of their pain and how to cope with the burdens of their past.

It’s such a moving journey for both of them. Ollie, the Krampus, and Chris , the vet. Each a warrior in their right and each with a burden they must be able to lay down at the end.

Eveland has many more elements to this story that will carry over to the other books. Themes as well as actual storylines concerning big plot points.

There’s action, suspense, military subterfuge, and more. It’s a fast paced tale.

It’s also very sexy. The author’s very inventive when it come to the sexuality and organs of nonhumans.

And Eveland never forgets the warfare and brutality that starts the book and series, the explosions that forever changes these men’s lives . Its impact is realistically felt through all their actions, emotions, their dialogue, and in what they aren’t able to handle. It’s raw and real.

There are trigger warnings at the beginning of each book. Heed them because this novel is one you will get emotionally caught up in.

And it’s one I’m highly recommending.

One mistake the author made . Not sure why it wasn’t caught. This is , of course, the first in the series, so the author named Hotdog as Robert Jones in real life.

“ So everybody just kind of gets a nickname. Hotdog’s real name was Robert Jones, about as common a name as you can get, so we got to naming him real quick.”

Unfortunately, by the time his book arrives, he’s become Robert Smith. No explanation. Someone should have caught that.

Otherwise, outstanding storytelling. Great concepts, and I love these four men.

Run, don’t walk or slide or whatever, and grab the series up. More reviews will follow.

Monsters in my Bed series:

✓ Kissed by the Krampus #1

◦ Scales and Song #2

◦ Hearts and Halos #3

✓ Lassos and Lace #4

Buy Link:

Kissed by the Krampus: M/M Paranormal Fantasy Monster Romance (Monsters in my Bed Book 1)

Description:

Some wounds, only a monster can heal.

I’ve always hated Christmas. With a name like Chris Kringle, it’s hard not to.


It’s only gotten worse since I’ve been back from the war. Christmas is supposed to be jolly, but for me, it’s a grim reminder of past failures.

I need to get away from it. To be somewhere quiet. To heal.

When I wake up in the South Pole after an accident to a Krampus tending my wounds, it feels like the perfect opportunity to get some much-needed R&R.

Yet this gentle giant is so achingly sweet, I can’t help but fall for him, even though he’s a monster.

But another, more sinister monster may be lurking much closer to home, and if we don’t hunt it down in time, this could be the last Christmas ever.

Kissed by the Krampus is a holiday MM monster romance for adults featuring a cinnamon roll monster and a veteran grappling with his PTSD.