Tag: Author Sue Brown

A Caryn Review: Alpha Barman (J.T.’s Bar #1) by Sue Brown

Rating: 2.5 out of 5 stars

f1ba3-final_suebrown_alphabarman_ebookSue Brown is one of those authors who, for me, sometimes knocks it out of the park, and sometimes her books are just meh.  This book was definitely one of those meh ones.

Jake Tyler was a member of a special operations team who left after he found his brother-in-law Riley – who was also his best friend and member of his team – standing over his sister’s dead body with a bloody knife.  He worked to make sure Riley was convicted, and then abruptly quit and moved to Wyoming, leaving his long time lover Mitch behind.  He opened a bar in a tiny town in Wyoming, and started over, trying to leave everything about his past life behind.  He told no one on his team where he was going, and never even said goodbye to Mitch.

When the remainder of his old team shows up in his bar, Jake is angry and conflicted.  They came because Riley has escaped from prison, and everyone is convinced that he will head straight for Jake, to exact revenge, or to try again to make Jake believe he is innocent.  The team is there to protect Jake, but he doesn’t feel he needs protection, and most of all doesn’t want to be reminded of everything that happened before, and all he walked away from.  Especially Mitch.

At first, I believed the entire set up.  All the guys are tough as nails, intelligent and resourceful, physically imposing, and share that bond that comes from facing danger and saving each other’s lives.  Or that is what they are supposed to be.  But they kept falling short of the set up.  Or the background wasn’t supported at all by their actions.  Riley was supposedly Jake’s best friend for most of his life, married his sister, and they were as close as brothers.  But Jake never even considered listening to Riley’s version of events until Riley tracked him down in Wyoming.  Jake is supposed to be able to predict Riley’s moves because he was the one who trained him, but he never does.  The team is supposed to be the best of the best, and yet their plans to capture or neutralize Riley are pretty amateurish.  And the author spent way longer describing the two days before Riley’s arrival than was necessary, and I got tired of Jake angsting over Mitch, over Howie, over how Simon will treat Howie, over whether anyone will be able to eat Moose’s sloppy joes….  Nope, doesn’t make Jake sound all that tough, and certainly not decisive.  Then there was Riley’s progress to the bar, which actually started to get funny:  he escaped!  He must be hitchhiking!  He must be stealing a car!  He has contacts all over, and of course he’s gotten a gun!  How will he be able to get a gun?  He has a Hummer, he could just crash right into the bar!  He got rid of the Hummer, because the team would know he had it!   We’ll never see him coming!  Let’s put the retired Marines outside to reconnoiter!  Lets get those retired Marines inside before they get themselves killed!  Jake, get in the basement!  No, I won’t!  OK, I will!  I must be the one to confront Riley, I will not be in the basement!  I don’t know who edited this, but I’m not impressed.

And it didn’t even end there.  I got the impression that the Ms. Brown thought it would be great (or at least profitable) to write a story consisting entirely of stereotypical alpha males, because they are hot, and therefore six of them will be six times hotter.  Of course the most manly occupation possible is special forces, so that’s what they are.  Although I never saw exactly what organization they were part of – military?  NSA?  CIA?  Who knows, who cares, these guys are oozing testosterone through their hard bodies, and being hot will make up for their inconsistent and frankly stupid actions.  And rambling plot with huge holes.  Don’t get me wrong, I also enjoy the occasional dual alpha male story that involves them beating the shit out of each other, or the bad guys, as a form of foreplay (i.e., Ty and Zane in Abigail Roux’s Cut and Run series do that trope excellently), but the author just kind of missed the mark here.  By a mile.

Cover art by Garrett Leigh works perfectly.

Buy Links: Amazon US | Amazon UK

Book Details:

Kindle Edition, 150 pages
Published November 24th 2016 by Sue Brown’s Stories
ASINB01N99W6N4
Edition LanguageEnglish
SeriesJ.T.’s Bar #1

Release Tour & Giveaway: Sue Brown’s Alpha Barman

Alpha Barman – Sue Brown

Author: Sue Brown
 
Release Date: November 24
 
Cover Design: Garrett Leigh
 
Length: 48,000 words
 
Buy Links:

Buy Links: Amazon US | Amazon UK 

| Smashwords | AllRomance | KOBO | B&N | iTunes

 
Blurb
 

Jake Tyler walked out of Special Ops two years ago, a devastated, broken man after he discovered his sister brutally murdered by her husband, Riley. Since then he’s found a kind of peace running a rural bar. The last thing Jake Tyler expects is his former team to turn up with grim news. Jake’s ex-brother-in-law has escaped from prison and is heading Jake’s way. The team is here to protect Jake, whether he likes it or not – a decision reluctantly shared by their leader, Jake’s ex-lover Mitch Mitchelson.

Mitch is angry and hurting. The man he trusted – the man he adored more than anything – abandoned both his team and Mitch. Jake never gave Mitch a chance to help or come to terms with his desertion. Regardless of mission protocols, Mitch isn’t about to open his heart again to that kind of pain.

But the strong attraction between them can’t be denied. How are they ever going to work together when Mitch still resents Jake’s disappearance, and to Jake, the team represents everything that destroyed him in the first place? And meantime they wait for Riley to find them… and to settle the threat once and for all.

Author Bio

Sue Brown is owned by her dog and two children. When she isn’t following their orders, she can be found plotting at her laptop. In fact she hides so she can plot, and has become an expert at ignoring the orders.Sue discovered M/M erotica at the time she woke up to find two men kissing on her favorite television series. She had an Aha moment and put pen to paper that same day. Sue may be late to the party, but she’s made up for it since, writing fan fiction until she was brave enough to venture out into the world of original fiction.

Come over and talk to Sue at:
sue@suebrownstories.com
Her website can be found at:
http://www.suebrownstories.com/
Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/suebrownstories
Twitter:
http://twitter.com/suebrownstories
Blog:
http://suebrownsstories.blogspot.com/

 

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Release Blitz and Giveaway for Sue Brown’s Alpha Barman

Alpha Barman – Sue Brown

Author: Sue Brown
 
Release Date: November 24
 
Cover Design: Garrett Leigh
 
Length: 48,000 words
 
Buy Links: Amazon US | Amazon UK | Smashwords | AllRomance | KOBO | B&N | iTunes
 

Blurb

Jake Tyler walked out of Special Ops two years ago, a devastated, broken man after he discovered his sister brutally murdered by her husband, Riley. Since then he’s found a kind of peace running a rural bar. The last thing Jake Tyler expects is his former team to turn up with grim news. Jake’s ex-brother-in-law has escaped from prison and is heading Jake’s way. The team is here to protect Jake, whether he likes it or not – a decision reluctantly shared by their leader, Jake’s ex-lover Mitch Mitchelson.

Mitch is angry and hurting. The man he trusted – the man he adored more than anything – abandoned both his team and Mitch. Jake never gave Mitch a chance to help or come to terms with his desertion. Regardless of mission protocols, Mitch isn’t about to open his heart again to that kind of pain.

But the strong attraction between them can’t be denied. How are they ever going to work together when Mitch still resents Jake’s disappearance, and to Jake, the team represents everything that destroyed him in the first place? And meantime they wait for Riley to find them… and to settle the threat once and for all.

Author Bio

Sue Brown is owned by her dog and two children. When she isn’t following their orders, she can be found plotting at her laptop. In fact she hides so she can plot, and has become an expert at ignoring the orders.

Sue discovered M/M erotica at the time she woke up to find two men kissing on her favorite television series. She had an Aha moment and put pen to paper that same day. Sue may be late to the party, but she’s made up for it since, writing fan fiction until she was brave enough to venture out into the world of original fiction.

Come over and talk to Sue at:
sue@suebrownstories.com
Her website can be found at:
http://www.suebrownstories.com/
Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/suebrownstories
Twitter:
http://twitter.com/suebrownstories
Blog:
http://suebrownsstories.blogspot.com/

 

 

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Cover Reveal for Alpha Barman by Sue Brown

Sue Brown – Alpha Barman

Release Date: November 24 2016
 
Blurb
 

Jake Tyler walked out of Special Ops two years ago, a devastated, broken man after he discovered his sister brutally murdered by her husband, Riley. Since then heís found a kind of peace running a rural bar. The last thing Jake Tyler expects is his former team to turn up with grim news. Jakeís ex-brother-in-law has escaped from prison and is heading Jakeís way. The team is here to protect Jake, whether he likes it or not ñ a decision reluctantly shared by their leader, Jakeís ex-lover Mitch Mitchelson.

Mitch is angry and hurting. The man he trusted ñ the man he adored more than anything ñ abandoned both his team and Mitch. Jake never gave Mitch a chance to help or come to terms with his desertion. Regardless of mission protocols, Mitch isnít about to open his heart again to that kind of pain.

But the strong attraction between them canít be denied. How are they ever going to work together when Mitch still resents Jakeís disappearance, and to Jake, the team represents everything that destroyed him in the first place? And meantime they wait for Riley to find them… and to settle the threat once and for all.

Author Bio

 
Sue Brown is owned by her dog and two children. When she isn’t following their orders, she can be found plotting at her laptop. In fact she hides so she can plot, and has become an expert at ignoring the orders.

 Sue discovered M/M erotica at the time she woke up to find two men kissing on her favorite television series. She had an Aha moment and put pen to paper that same day. Sue may be late to the party, but she’s made up for it since, writing fan fiction until she was brave enough to venture out into the world of original fiction.

Come over and talk to Sue at:
sue@suebrownstories.com
Her website can be found at:
http://www.suebrownstories.com/

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A Caryn Review: Morning My Angel (Angel Enterprises #1) by Sue Brown

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

e50f3-morning2bmy2bangel2bjpgYou gotta love thrillers with snarky protagonists!  Josh Cooper works for CDR, a security company in Seattle that usually provides bodyguards and such to celebrities, but he and his team have been sent to London for a special assignment.  This job is more of an investigation than what they usually do, and they first have to find their mark, before they can protect him.  CDR has contracted with a London based company to assist them, and set Josh’s team up with an equivalent team there.  From the beginning, there is mistrust and animosity as both teams – as well as various London law enforcement agencies – battle over turf and refuse to share information.

Josh is unapologetically out, gay, and willing to hit on anybody who is attractive – gay or straight – sometimes to get laid, but mostly because he just loves to get a rise out of people.  He is snarky, abrasive, has a massive caffeine addiction, and proud that everyone at CDR knows him as an asshole, but an asshole who gets things done.  About two years prior to the events of this book, after an accidental message, he started up a virtual friendship with a man whom he dubbed “Charlie” who called Josh “Angel”.  Yes, there are mentions of Farrah Fawcett in here and references to the original TV series!  Josh comes to regard Charlie as a close friend, confides in him, is happy every time Charlie contacts him, and realizes that he is falling in love with him.  Now he just needs to find out Charlie’s identity so they can get together in real life.

The pace of the book was fast and exciting, both the investigation and the romance, and I basically read it in one sitting.  Just when I thought that the action was peaking and the book was wrapping up, I’d realize I was far from the end, and the plot would take another twist.  Some of those were very predictable (Charlie’s true identity was pretty obvious to everyone but Josh), but I have to admit the big reveal at the end really surprised me.

There were a lot of loose ends that weren’t completely tied up at the end of the book, which would have been disappointing, until I realized this would be the first of a series.  Josh and Charlie don’t get their HEA, but they definitely have a HFN and the set up for more danger and adventure in the next installment.  This is a series I am going to enjoy reading!  It reminded me a little of the Shadow of the Templar by M. Chandler, for those who enjoyed that series.

The cover art by Meredith Russell made me think of an entirely different story – the model looks like a mild mannered software engineer looking out over Seattle instead of who I imagined Josh to be, and even had a beard that Josh certainly didn’t have.  The book reads like a thriller, and the cover doesn’t convey that at all.

Sales Links

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Release Day Tour: Morning My Angel by Sue Brown- (excerpt and giveaway)

Morning My Angel – Sue Brown

Author: Sue Brown
 
Release Date: September 29 2016
 
Length: 265 pages
 
Blurb
 
Josh Cooper, top US security field agent, is sent on an inter-agency assignment to London, when a partner in his firm goes missing in suspicious circumstances. Used to working in sole charge of his well-honed team, he clashes heads with the handsome, but pompous Cal, his UK co-operator and superior. Josh’s gut tells him something is wrong. He’s being kept out of the loop and Cal’s agenda is running on a different path. 

He also has a personal issue to deal with. He’s involved in a cyber-relationship with “Charlie”, an unknown man who connected with Josh by accident. Their banter has led to deeper respect and a sexual interest, but now Josh is faced with a growing attraction to Cal. Between this conflict and the tension of the mission, Josh’s heart and head are overworked and confused. Things can’t get much worse. 

Then Josh discovers the enemies he’s seeking have a new target: him.
 
Author Bio
 

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