Tag: closeted character

Review: Holiday Heart Strings (Hartbridge Christmas, #4) by N. R. Walker

Rating: 5 🌈

I love this series so much and it just keeps getting better with each story. Holiday Heart Strings sees Hartbridge, Montana getting a new elementary school teacher in the form of newly arrived Englishman, Braithe Branson.

Braithe has a temporary position as a kindergarten teacher until the permanent one comes back from maternity leave. Just enough time for the legendary Hartbridge Christmas Cupid connection to kick in.

Walker’s series is that Christmas gift that keeps on giving, and now we get a new couple and emotionally charged romance. While Braithe is a English spot of delightful positivity and optimism, the story belongs to Deputy Colson Price, a wounded man in need of healing and help so he can find his way forward to a real family and community within the place where he calls home.

I found myself in tears more than once, at the pain and suffering that Walker realistically wrote into Colson’s fear over being gay and the abusive homophobic history that led to it. But Walker balances it with the joy of Braithe’s compassion and understanding as well as love showed Colson he could be safe in his sexuality as their relationship progresses.

I love all the Hartbridge couples but this may be my favorite story. It’s so moving and deeply rooted in the feelings of the community and characters.

With each release there’s always a bit of apprehension that this is the last of Walker’s Hartbridge Christmas novels but there’s a new gay firefighter in town in need of his own HEA so, delightfully, we can look forward to another narrative gift next Christmas! I’ll be waiting! And rereading this amazingly beautiful series to celebrate!

Don’t miss out on the Hartbridge map so you know just where everything is in this fabulous town!

Hartbridge Christmas:

✓ Tic-Tac-Mistletoe #1

✓ Christmas Wish List #2

✓ Merry Christmas Cupid #3

✓ Holiday Heart Strings #4

Buy Link:

Holiday Heart Strings (Hartbridge Christmas Series Book 4)

Blurb:

Hartbridge Christmas Series – Book Four

Englishman Braithe Branson arrives in Hartbridge, Montana, to take on a brief substitute kindergarten teacher position. His introduction to the sleepy town is being pulled over for speeding. Not an ideal start, but at least the deputy was cute.

Colson Price takes being a deputy very seriously. After all, his job is all he has. Disowned by his family ten years ago, he’s vowed to stay closeted so it won’t cost him everything all over again.

But the holidays are tough for Colson, and the new guy in town is far too tempting. With a promise of some very private no-strings encounters on the downlow, he can’t resist.

Braithe is charmed by the handsome deputy, the gorgeous town, and the great group of friends he meets. But as the countdown to leaving gets closer, the more tangled the ‘no strings’ becomes.

Braithe and Colson have to hope that Hartbridge will find a way for this Christmas wish to come true.

• Publisher: BlueHeart Press (November 21, 2023)

• Publication date: November 21, 2023

• Print length: 319 pages

Review: Full Throttle (Lights Out, #2) by Lisa Henry

Rating: 4.25 🌈

“Being an F1 driver is a crazy job but not what everyone expects. My year consists of 20% driving and 80% media, marketing, and travel.

-Daniel Ricciardo”

Full Throttle by Lisa Henry is our second fast paced, passionate romance in the multi author series, Lights Out.

In this series about Formula 1 racing, each author takes one racing team, a driver or two on that team , the international races in the series , and the dramatic events that occur during that season. We see it impacting on the various races , season team standings, the emotional reverberations on each driver, as well as the relationships that arise between men on the circuit.

In Full Throttle, Henry’s focus is on Bradley Racing. Sir Andrew Bradley a former F1 champion, his sons , the oldest, Malcolm, the current F1 team champion, and Lennox, the introverted son whose been racing in F2, but now has been called up by his father to be the team’s F1 reserve driver. This is a huge honor as well as an earned achievement for young drivers, a spot that Lennox is well aware he’s not exactly achieved but being given as the son of the wealthy owner. It’s a place that should have gone to his F2 teammate, Renzo.

It’s a sore spot that other drivers, as the infamous Karl Nuemann keeps reminding him, and others, loudly and often. In scenes to be repeated throughout the series.

Henry has given us a very relatable character in Lennox. Lennox is a soft spoken, insecure man, one with a father whose disappointment and indifference to his hopes for his future plans make him withdraw into himself further. There’s no outlet for Lennox, no one to confide with, even on his own truths about his sexuality.

Until a fist fight with Karl and a dropped koala bring him to the attention of Team PR mastermind, Connor Blake.

Henry’s cast of well rounded characters expands with the addition of Connor Blake, a man from Melbourne, with a ex boss and family who want him back in Australia where he’s beginning to feel like he needs to be. Connor ‘s circle comes with the ever so delicious Arlo Paddington, CEO of Hipe, his ex boss who wants him back. Every conversation, every get together is a delight! Same goes for Alexis, the acerbic , perfectly put together director of communications of Bradley Racing, a master of the wry look . Connor is in control of each situation, changing the direction of the narrative to fit the team’s needs, and goals. But not without a heart and informative mind guiding him.

Henry has multiple themes in play here. The troubled Blake family dynamics , team hierarchy dynamics where resentment is building over Andrew’s eagerness to push Lennox forward over other better qualified drivers, and finally, Lennox’ s closeted status.

Because being gay isn’t acceptable if you’re a F1 driver, and, from Lennox’s perspective, that’s one more strike against him in his own family where he’s kept his sexuality a secret.

The slowly building relationship between Lennox and Connor is full of hurdles, and while there’s racing elements, they don’t feel as massive an element as they did in Scott’s novel, Team Orders.

This feels more relationship and personality driven, and while we focus on the team building aspects of Team Bradley, and all the communication/PR that goes into a successful business, I wish we had more track time too.

The quotes from actual drivers at the beginning of each story give us insight into how the author is angling the focus. Here it’s the stresses and frustration of the of 80 percent of the sport as it’s seen through the life of Lennox and Connor, the PR man who’s a magician at handling this aspect of F1 racing.

A bonus was the epilogue, it didn’t extend too far beyond the end of the season, all the characters were comfortably included here.

I really enjoyed Full Throttle by Lisa Henry. The characters, relationships, family dynamics, were all well defined and realistically balanced against the frustrations and challenges that comes with racing at the F1 level right now.

I’m definitely recommending this story and the one that came before. This is turning into a very exciting series!

Lights Out:

✓ Team Orders by RJ Scott

✓ Full Throttle by Lisa Henry

◦ Pole Position by Charlie Novak 6/6

◦ Scoring Points by HL Day 6/13

◦ Black Flagged by Emma Jaye 6/20

◦ Rookie Mistakes by Beth Laycock 6/27/2023

Buy link:

Full Throttle

Description:

When Lennox and Connor race full throttle into a secret relationship, can they navigate the track, or will they crash and burn?

Lennox Bradley is Formula 1 royalty. His father was an F1 champion, and so is his brother, so expectations are high for Lennox’s debut season. But when he suffers a koala-related PR disaster at the Australian Grand Prix, he’s thrust into the media spotlight. For an introvert like Lennox, it’s a nightmare.

Connor Blake doesn’t know the first thing about Formula 1, but as communications manager for Bradley Racing, it’s his job to manage the fallout for Lennox. Except Lennox isn’t anything like the arrogant, shallow guy he’s expecting, and it gets harder and harder to deny the magnetism between them. When Connor and Lennox both have to choose what it is they really want for themselves, is there any room for a future together?

This M/M romance from Lisa Henry features a secret relationship, two guys who are bad at admitting their feelings, pining, and is set in the high octane world of Formula 1 featuring fast cars, driving at the limit, spectacular crashes, heated rivalries, and of course, a HEA.

Each book in the Lights Out collection is a standalone story, and the books can be read in any order.

From R.J. Scott’s Team Orders:

Racing Pride🌈

“Racing Pride The F1 calendar takes place in some countries hostile to those identifying as queer, and teams have sponsors who might not support a queer driver. As of April 2023, there is no openly out F1 driver.”

“Racing Pride is a new initiative embracing all elements within motorsport, and actively promoting, and supporting LGBTQ + participants in order to create some desperately needed role models for aspiring LGBTQ + participants in motorsport.

Find out more here: racingpride.com.”

— Team Orders (Lights Out Book 1) by RJ Scott

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: Rental (Boston Rebels Book 6) by R. J. Scott and V.L. Locey

Rating: 4.75 🌈

R. J. Scott and V.L. Locey take their Boston Rebels series out on a grand story, one that’s my favorite of the group. In a fitting way, they do it by giving us two perspectives we as hockey’s fans and LGBTGIA hockey romance readers don’t often get, one of the professional NHL referee and the other of a type of player called a “Rental”. A rental is a really good player who’s brought in just to fill a spot for a part of a season or maybe a year. But not great enough , young enough, whatever, to sign permanently. They play for many teams over the course of their careers.

In Rental, Scott and Locey give us the gift of getting to get a feel for what it’s like working as a professional Ref, and as a Rental. As a Rental, walking into a locker room , having that lack of commitment to any team or not feeling of being a part of a team dynamic. Something so instrumental in a team’s development and success. For a NHL ref it’s the constant movement and commitment to the sport as fans ideas on the refs themselves. It’s their personalities and perspectives on the sport, and how they are put together as Referees teams on the rink.

I felt like I had such a strong connection to both men , Webber and Logan, and a real understanding of their emotional state when they met at that bar.

That Scott and Locey love and understand the sport of hockey as they do shows in every beautifully crafted character, on all the fast paced scenes on ice, the emotionally demanding nature of the game as delivered through heartfelt moments of pain , loss, and passion of winning. It’s those of physical beauty of the players and the crushing bruising of the brutality of the game too.

Both authors deliver that so seamlessly. Here we get all that threaded through a heated forbidden romance between Webber Kelty, NHL Ref, 40’s closeted from Georgetown, Ontario, and Logan Mackie, out gay , a rental replacement for the beloved hurt Dunny Dunkirk , as the Rebels are making a run for the playoffs .

It’s a story that’s got all the right elements and depth. Great characters, passion, hidden romance, secrets, and everything on the line.

Plus it has so many fantastic characters from other series that pop up during the playoffs to create extra fun.

My tiny quibble is that there’s a small storyline that comes in towards the end that feels unnecessary. There’s so many great aspects to this book that are grounded in reality or things that have a firm foundation that the authors laid down, that this other element feels flimsy by comparison.

It’s a fabulous book and fast engaging read without it. It adds extra drama. But that’s like saying, ok we had 47 cherries on top, not enough. Let’s add 3 more. Ok Done.

Either way, this is a marvelous book and a fantastic way to see the Boston Rebels out. Now onto the next series.

I’m highly recommending Rental (Boston Rebels Book 6) by R. J. Scott and V.L. Locey.

Boston Rebels series:

✓ Top Shelf #1

✓ Back Check #2

✓ Snowed #3

✓ Royal Lines #4

✓ Blade #5

✓ Rental #6

Buy Link:

Rental (Boston Rebels Book 6)

Description:

A steamy romance between a player and a referee breaks all the rules but will it destroy their careers?

Five different cities in eight years — Logan’s never had the chance to settle in one place. He’s the guy who fills in gaps on teams as a temporary fix and is traded at year’s end because no one wants to keep a thirty-year-old rental after he’s outlived his usefulness. When he’s called up to the Rebels, he knows it’s his last run in the NHL. Now, he must decide if it’s worth carrying on with the weight of his secrets around his neck for one more year. He’s never had a love that mattered, his career is nearly done, his ex-wife is remarrying, his sex life is drier than a desert, and abruptly, Logan’s had enough. He craves one night to ease the frustration, and hooks up with someone tall, dark, and dangerous in the bathroom of a club. The sex is off the charts, but it’s one and done, until Logan realizes exactly who he slept with and understands how dangerous it is to play games with secrets.

Being a referee is in Webber’s blood, and it’s a job he loves. Sure, sometimes he’s called dirty names—by fans, coaches, and players—or must insert himself between two massive men trying to pummel each other. Some nights, he’s knocked on his ass. Other times, he might take a puck to a tender spot. But despite all the hazards and name calling, there is no place he wants to be than on the ice. If only his love life was as settled. It’s hard to find someone willing to put up with his travel schedule, and even if he found Mr. Right, how would he juggle a romance when he’s never home? A chance hookup while officiating a game in Boston should be a simple matter of scratching that itch, but he couldn’t be more wrong.

Unfortunately, that one-night stand—while memorable—turns his sedate life upside down in ways he could’ve never foreseen. When the penalty for love is losing everything he’s worked hard for, is it a price he’s willing to pay?

Review: Roommate (Vino and Veritas) by Sarina Bowen

Rating: 4.75🌈

I can always count on the Vino and Veritas series to bring me a new engaging contemporary novel to dive into, this time by Sarina Bowen.

Vino and Veritas (now on its second series) is written by a revolving selection of authors and the novels are loosely based in and around Burlington, Vermont and the unique gay bookstore and bar, Vino and Veritas.

Roommate takes us back to the nearby home of the widespread Shipley family, of the famous Shipley cider, in Colebury, Vermont. Bowen has written about the Shipley clan before but it’s not necessary to know anything about those stories to get involved in the lives of the people you’re going to meet here.

It’s a hallmark of this series that the authors, including Bowen, deliver a thoughtful and layered storyline when developing their romance. So each man is depicted as dealing with a multitude of issues that are deeply embedded in his life history and need to be resolved in some manner in order for each to move forward with their own lives and as a couple.

I can’t begin to tell you how much this approach to her storytelling I appreciate. It involves some serious issues with each man, including parental rejection due to sexuality, a termination of a relationship because of a closeted partner, deeply rooted family secrets, insecurities and fear of the loss of identity.

That’s such a realistic heavy burden that Bowen lays upon the shoulders of her main characters yet she weaves a great amount of love and laughter into them as well through shared experiences and food.

I loved how well crafted all the characters are here. From the main characters of Roderick and Kieran Shipley, to the amazing women who own the bakery, to the stress-filled, close mouthed farming Shipley family of Kieran so full of secrets. Every single one was as real as day. You could feel the anguish, the pain, and the tension.

The flow of the narrative is believable, as is the decisions each man makes along the way. Small steps toward a larger growth.

Overall a fabulous romance, a great job of storytelling and characters I hope to see again in future novels.

One thing.

I’m so sorry I didn’t have a bunch of great pretzels, or bagels, or babka to knosh on while reading this because, frankly, reading what Roderick was baking had me drooling. So take this as a hint and stock up before you start.

I’m highly recommending this. And check out the other books in the two series while you’re at it.

Vino and Veritas:

Roommate by Sarina Bowen

Featherbed by Annabeth Albert

Headstrong by Eden Finley

Heartscape by Garrett Leigh

Aftermath by LA Witt

Undercover by Eliot Grayson

Booklover by JE Birk

Flipcup by Kim Hartfield (F/F)

Unguarded by Jay Hogan

Buy Link :

Roommate (Vino and Veritas)

Description:

Wanted: One roommate to share a 3-bedroom house, split the rent, and ideally not be the guy I can’t stop thinking about.


I’m a man with too many secrets, so the last thing I need is a new roommate with a sexy smile and blue eyes that see right through me. Eight years ago, Roderick left town after high school. We’re not friends. I owe him nothing. But back then, I let one of my secrets slip, and he’s the only one who noticed. 


Part of me knows I should run far, far away. But the other part wants him to come upstairs and spend the night. But if I let him in, I could lose everything.
 
Seeking: a room to rent in town. I’m tidy, have no pets, and I will feed you homemade bread. 


I should probably add: Gay AF, and has no filter. It’s no wonder my new landlord is so wary of me. 


A smarter man would ignore those hot glances from Kieran Shipley. The broody lumberjack wants more from me than another homemade pretzel, but if I push my luck, I’ll end up back on the street.


Too bad I’ve never been smart with my heart… 

Vino and Veritas (19 books)

by Sarina Bowen And various authors

Review: This Is Real by Barbara Elsbourg

Rating: 3.75🌈

I like Barbara Elsborg, so I didn’t want to pass up her latest holiday romance, This Is Real.

A contemporary romance, it’s got a late coming out element, a snarky Englishman, a closeted American actor and a holiday movie set that brings them together.

I found it entertaining and sweet with characters that engaged me with their different backgrounds . Pasts that included aspects to their histories that were painful and believably difficult so they felt realistic .

Murdo Jenkins is a maths lecturer at Harvard. He’s got a vacation booked to see his bestie who’s also an Assistant Producer on a holiday film. He’s English with a painful history as an orphan whose adolescence was one of torment and neglect. Christmas is not his thing for reasons that will be revealed.

I liked the character of Murdo, feisty and highly intelligent. He had a welcome depth and interest to his personality that kept me involved in his life.

Lukas Olsen, actor and deeply closeted gay man, was a bit harder to get into. Not that he wasn’t understandable but at first I simply didn’t like his character. That changes as the story progresses and we get more of the background that made him into the man he’s become.

Their relationship and developing romance is fun, the dialogue is lively, personable and charming. It pulls us into their lives with a warm immediacy. The pitfalls to trying anything with a closeted partner is out front in both men’s minds. It won’t work.

Obviously the obstacles and drama will occur to change that. It happens towards the end of the story and I suppose that’s where my issues set in.

I realize this and others like it are holiday stories. That they come with a certain amount of glow and holiday spirit that sometimes glosses over some of life’s harsher realities.

But maybe it’s a bit of the Scrooge in me that thinks a holiday spirit shouldn’t be the panacea for all the things the bad people do or troublesome events that occur in these stories. That there’s another way to work through these elements realistically without having to do the whole “ let’s forgive the incredibly stupid or highly irresponsible/illegal acts that happened “ in order to have that golden moment(s) at the end.

Spoiler Alert. If someone in a position of authority takes advantage of a severely wounded person to then use that to a monetary advantage to potentially inflict great emotional harm as well as huge damage in other avenues? Then it’s , aww , it’s the holidays, and his excuse, well , doesn’t hold water either. So no, please stop with this type of narrative nonsense. Just because it’s a holiday story doesn’t excuse this behavior. Let’s be real.

So you had me almost to the end. I liked the epilogue. It’s just that bit towards the end. Eliminate that or change how it’s handled, and my overall opinion would be different.

Maybe you will find that aspect not as off putting as I do and will love this.

I will leave it up to you. I did enjoy the majority of the story.

Goodreadshttps://www.goodreads.com › showThis Is Real by Barbara Elsborg

Description:

A snarky English nerd. A hot American actor. When Christmas brings them together, they have more in common than they know…

Murdo doesn’t do Christmas, but this year, he’s looking forward to spending time with an old friend. Elodie’s working on a film starring Murdo’s Biggest Crush, the gorgeous Lukas Olsen. When Elodie asks him to give Lukas a lift from Logan International, Murdo can’t believe his luck. Lukas might be straight, but ogling’s acceptable—right?
Lukas arrives at the airport to find a gaggle of fans but no driver waiting and when he does turn up, the snarky Englishman can’t even remember where he’s parked. When they finally reach their destination, Lukas tries to tip him and Murdo makes his current opinion of Lukas very clear. His crush is over.

Things move from bad to worse when Murdo tells the director that Lukas’s English accent isn’t authentic. But a pang of guilt, and maybe a remnant of lust, has Murdo offering to give dialect lessons to a resentful Lukas. Only once they’re in Lukas’s house, annoyance turns into something far more dangerous, because Lukas isn’t out and never will be. He has too much to lose: career, fans, family and friends.

Yet something about Murdo makes Lukas want to risk it all…

Review: Hot Seat (The Hot Cannolis #1) by Eli Easton and Tara Lain

Rating: 4.5 🌈

I hadn’t read Fireman’s Carry (The Hot Cannolis #0.5) by Eli Easton that was the source and inspiration for this series by Easton and Lain. I will certainly go ahead and do that now that I’ve read this book and the romance of those characters.

What is started there , a major fire and rescue of over 60 people by firefighter Mike Canali and civilian Shane Bower is where this novel’s storylines begins. With the aftermath of those events,weeks later, in everyone’s lives.

The events in that story are recounted somewhat so it’s not necessary to have read it to step into the people and their situations here.

One important detail, however, that’s not mentioned anywhere, either in the descriptions or authors note. There is a on page attempt at suicide, although it’s never actually termed that out loud. Also character depression. If any of this is a trigger for a reader, please know this in advance so you be the best judge about whether to read the story or not.

There are so many terrific elements here. The characters are very well done. Shane Bower and his Pops are amazing. From the moment Shane makes his appearance on the page with his book club (who I also adored hugely) I was immediately engaged. He was believable, likable, vulnerable, just everything you knew would end up pulling at your heart strings. Then I met his grandfather, Pops. And I was all in. Pops is another great character. Throughly realistic and wonderful.

I think most readers will have mixed feelings about the Cannolis, the enormous Italian firefighter clan that Mike Cannoli belongs to. I feel they are pretty realistic myself in the way they are portrayed. I’ve know a family very similar to them and while some may argue they may seem too black and white in their characteristics, I can argue that those personality traits are also very believable and true .

The men , father and brothers, were very homophobic and followed that old hard core machismo that impacted every part of their lives from childhood up. For Mike, having to live up to their ideals and endure their rigid idea of masculinity made the stress upon his daily life an ever increasing pressure he wasn’t even aware of. Until he was. When the very out Shane Bower enters his and his family’s life.

The authors accurately portrayed what happens when the status quo is upset within a traditional Italian family, with the women on one side and the men on the other.

The majority of the story deals with Mike and his coming to grips first with his sexuality, then with the idea of a relationship, then the overwhelming fear of being known as gay to his family. This is really his story and it’s a realistic, painful one.

Shane is just as much a part of it as a out and proud gay man in love with someone who can’t accept himself. That’s another element and equally hurtful. To Shane and Mike.

The support characters, from the wonderful women of the Cannoli family to Shane’s friends to a surprise in the form of Donny, give this story extra depth. I love them all.

Mike’s depression and the events that follow feel accurate but deserve a trigger warning. FYI.

I am recommending this story. I wouldn’t call this a romantic comedy however. There’s humor but the focus is serious and dramatic while still including the romance.

I liked that the authors recognizes that not everyone would be able to come around and accept Mike’s new sexuality completely. That’s just not realistic given his family. Thanks for keeping it real!

I’m really looking forward to the next in the series. It’s Donny’s story, Hot Winds. Can’t wait.

Until then pick this up and enjoy!

The Hot Cannolis series:

◦ Fireman’s Carry (The Hot Cannolis #0.5) by Eli Easton

✓ Hot Seat #1

◦ Hot Wings #2 – March 29, 2022

https://www.goodreads.com › showHot Seat (The Hot Cannolis #1) by Eli Easton – Goodreads

Synopsis:

Wait. Can a Canali be gay?

Hero firefighter, youngest of six macho Italian brothers and—in love with Shane Bower, who never met a unicorn T-shirt he didn’t love? How does that even work?

When Mike Canali meets Shane Bower, his attraction to the guy is off the charts. But then his huge family and intense job full of rules and expectations intrude and he never calls.

Until they both get a medal—
and his mom falls in love with Shane at the ceremony—
and all of a sudden Shane’s all over his life, whether Mike likes it or not.

The butch Canali family face-to-face with sparkly Shane Bower? This is a wildfire of its own.

Shane worked damned hard to be who he is—fantastic, femme and in-your-face. He won’t compromise that, even to have the super-hot man of his dreams. But can he really ask Mike to give up his family and future just to have his fabulous self? Especially when he’s falling in love with the Canali family too?

HOT SEAT is a hot firefighter, big crazy family, coming out, opposites attract, forced proximity, romantic comedy—with all the feels.

Review: The Viking and the Drag Queen (Campo Royale #1) by V. L. Locey

Rating: 4.5 🌈

The first in a series about a the people who are a found family in a drag club , The Viking and the Drag Queen by V. L. Locey is a wonderful read.

It has several things I look forward to seeing in a romance from this author. Starting with a hockey player with issues. In this case a huge Danish hockey player named after a god, Tyr Hemmingsen.

His issues stem from dark childhood, parental expectations that leave deep emotional damage, and their early deaths. Now he’s left with the childhood vows his father made him make about a future that’s here, and his own wants that’s he’s buried his entire life. Yes, this is a deeply conflicted, wounded man in need of a change.

Love those!

Next is a character I adore. Drag queens. This one is perfection.

It’s the change Tyr needs that comes in the tiny form of one Gigi Patel LeBay, a Drag Queen who performs to packed crowds at the Campo Royale. Singing songs from the 40’s, sassy and glorious, she lights up the stage and overturns Tyr’s life.

She’s also Elijah McBride, a young man who’s parents all but disowned him for being not just gay but a man who dresses up. He’s had a lot of pain in a short period of time.

Naturally, Locey has great secondary characters who act as support for both men. It’s wonderful to see and having such a enjoyable family around each man when they struggle with the relationship and Tyr’s fears.

I wish we’d been more a part of Tyr’s thoughts and processes as he determined what finally became priority for him. Still that scene was heartwarming and so adorable.

I also wonder if this is the last we’ve seen of Ben…hmmmm. I even want more Morty! Surely we can find someone for Morty? Go, Warthogs!

Anyway, I adore Tyr and Eli, love the house of Patel, need more which is coming in The Batchelor and The Cherry. For the list of novels planned, see below. I’ll be there for each and every one!

I’m highly recommending this!

Campo Royale series:

✓ The Viking and the Drag Queen #1

◦ The Batchelor and the Cherry #2 – coming April 20, 2022

◦ The Barkeep and the Bookseller #3 – coming August 5, 2022

◦ The Financier and the Sweetheart #4 – coming 2023

◦ The Chanteuse and the Soldier #5 – coming 2023

https://www.goodreads.com › showThe Viking and the Drag Queen (Campo Royale, #1) by V.L. Locey – Goodreads

Tyr Hemmingsen had his life mapped out at a young age. The only son of the late Danish hockey great, Elias Hemmingsen, Tyr has always done his best to follow the plans his father had laid out for him. Finish school, make it into the pros, become team captain, find a biddable young lady to marry, and win a championship so the Hemmingsen name lived on eternally on the side of a massive silver cup. Like the good son he is, Tyr has done as his father wished, no matter how it peeled away layers of his true self. Then, all the neatly placed supports that hold up his so-called life come crashing down during a night on the town. Tyr might be known as the “War God of Wilmington” on the ice, but there’s no battling the effect Gigi Patel LeBay has on him.

Elijah McBride lives for the spotlight. As Gigi, he bewitches and bedazzles the crowds at the Campo Royale Club. His vibrant stage persona is the face he presents to the world. Underneath the rouge, eyeliner, and lipstick is a young man who still feels the sting of his parents’ disapproval and rejection of the son who wears wigs and dates other men. With his drag family and older brother in his corner, he’s finally found peace in his life. Until the fateful night a massive hockey player shows up at the club. There’s a world of hurt in Tyr’s soft brown eyes, and Eli finds himself falling for the big man, despite all the barriers he’s built around his tender heart.


The Viking and the Drag Queen is an opposites attract gay romance with heavy checking, lipstick worship, an out and proud queen, a closeted athlete, family lost and found, twink/jock, a new beginning, and a well-cinched happy ending.

A MelanieM Review: His Heart or Mine (Individualists #1) by C.S. Joyce

Rating: 4 stars out of 5

 

“There’s something about the way he’s looking at me now, determined. Like he might ruin me if given half the chance.”

Adam:
Success can mean a lot of things. To me it meant living a lie and getting away with it.
But pretending is exhausting. My sister’s wedding in Italy was exactly what I needed. A week on the Amalfi coast with sunshine, wine, and zero complications.
Too bad the universe saw an opportunity to ruin that plan. Because what could be more complicated than the arrival of an attractive man who sees right through my act? One that is determined to remind me that you can’t hide who you really are.
What if he tells people my secret? Or, worse still, what if I can’t control these feelings. Because right now I’m feeling all sorts of things – fear, anger, lust…
No, I need to keep this thing under control. I can’t give in.
But what if, just once, I didn’t fight it?

Jacob:
After a series of bad decisions, running away to Italy seemed like the perfect escape. A fresh start in a new country. Nothing, and no one would bring me back to Ireland.
When I meet Adam at my friend’s wedding, I’m captivated. There’s something about this rugged stranger that makes me forget that I keep messing up every part of my life.
I know it’s a bad idea and I know I’m playing with fire. But when anger turns to passion I know I can’t stay away.
He can pretend all he wants but that man belongs in my bed. He might only be here for one week, but I intend to make the most of it.
After all, I can’t ask him for more when I’m not sure I’ll stick around.
But what if, this time, I didn’t run?

I thoroughly enjoyed His Heart or Mine (Individualists #1) by C.S. Joyce.  The first in a new series, it also marked the first book by this author for me.  Told in alternating points of view, we see two men bound for a destination wedding in Italy.  For Adam, it’s his sister’s wedding he’s attending.  He’s an Irishman so deeply in the closet that he doesn’t even admit to himself that he’s gay for fear that he’ll lose the tight control he’s administered over his life all these years in denial.  On the other side of the aisle?  That would be Jacob, coming in to see the groom, his friend from medical school get married.  Jacob lives in Rome, Italy, a place he fled from Ireland after failing from completing med school with Michael. Jacob is happily out, teaching English, but feels a failure on so many other fronts and is about to run into the one man  that will want him to change his fleeing ways.

Oh instant love.  What a hard thing to get right and a theme I normally don’t go along with.  Except here, in His Heart or Mine, the characters are so well done, the attraction and arguments for their chemistry so believable, that I connected to both men immediately.  The author was quick not to dwell too long on any one factor, moving back and forth like you would in a good personal exchange, keeping the dialog lively and compelling.  You got it why Adam couldn’t stay away from Jacob.  And while the opposite was also true.  These two men were made for each other.

As they argued, kissed, and kept coming back for each other, the secondary characters sort of blended into the  background.  That was a shame.  I often feel a strong cast makes for a stronger story.  I would have liked Michael and his bride to have had just as strong an impact on me as to give us more insight into the lead characters.  I mean these two mean the world to Jacob and Adam, let us see why.

The backdrop of Italy, including Rome, is a lovely setting for most of this story and it adds to the flavor of their relatoinship and romance.  I could feel that wonderful Italian heat soaking into everything through the vivid descriptions.

In short, this was a terrific romance with great characters and it will make me seek out more by this author.  It will certainly have me waiting for the next release in this series.  Love contemporary romance?  Be sure to check out His Heart or Mine (Individualists #1) by C.S. Joyce.  Its one I definitely recommend!

Cover Art: German Creative Design.  I like this cover.  That certainly looks like Adam but it could have used a backdrop otherwise its too generic.

Buy Links: Amazon US | Amazon UK

Book Details:

Kindle Edition, 176 pages
Published September 13th 2018
ASINB07GXH4GDB
Edition LanguageEnglish
SeriesIndividualists #1