Tag: hurt/comfort

Sunny Moraine On Writing Pain, Characters and ‘Sword and Star’ (guest blog and giveaway)

Sword and Star

Sword and Star (Root Code #3) by Sunny Moraine
Riptide Publishing
Cover art by Kanaxa

Read an Excerpt/Buy It Here

Scattered Thoughts and Rogue Words is happy to have Sunny Moraine here today to talk about writing, characterization and her latest novel in her Root Code series, Sword and Star.  Welcome, Sunny!.

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Welcome to the SWORD AND STAR blog tour! 

 

SWORD AND STAR is the conclusion of a trilogy I started (with my co-author for LINE AND ORBIT Lisa Soem) over a decade ago. It’s been a long, strange journey and now it’s over. It’s not the first book trilogy I’ve finished, but it’s certainly the closest to my heart.

 

It’s been amazing getting to know this world and these characters over the course of three books, and it’s been even more amazing getting to share it all with readers. Adam Yuga and Lochlan d’Bideshi’s story is done, Eva Reyes and Kyle Waverly have found their own conclusion, Kae and Leila’s part in this tale is over (though you’ll see those two again in the forthcoming LINEAGE), and I’ve bid a fond farewell to the Bideshi seer Nkiruka. Goodbyes are never easy, but when you arrive at a good one, it’s immensely satisfying.

 

I’m so grateful to everyone who’s traveled with me, and just as grateful to the people coming to the story now. Whatever category you fall into, I hope you’ll find this final volume a fitting end.

 

Thank you for being here!

 

 

Character Pain

 

One of the things that ends up being most necessary in a story, I think, is the willingness to make your characters suffer.

 

Which can be hard, because – ideally – you love these people. They’ve come to mean an enormous amount to you. You also identify with them; writing them is going to mean getting into their heads, their thoughts, feeling what they feel. If you’re going to put them through pain, writing it means experiencing that pain, at least to some degree. At least if you’re going to write it well.

 

So it’s natural to be inclined to not do so. But that’s a mistake.

 

It’s a mistake in part in terms of the amount of story. An easily resolved problem doesn’t give you much scope for plot. But even more it’s a mistake because it means there’s nothing at stake, and in order for a story to be engaging, the stakes have to be high. Usually the higher the better. Which means danger, severe consequences if things go wrong – and things pretty much have to go wrong, or the danger won’t seem real.

 

Though the entire Root Code trilogy, I’ve been trying to raise the stakes. LINE AND ORBIT ends with a climactic battle; SWORD AND STAR begins in the midst of a buildup to war, and the story as a whole is the story of that war. You don’t get stakes much higher than that – the war itself has the potential to be a war wherein the human race destroys itself. But that’s only a backdrop for the fear and suffering I put my characters through. I tried to put them through as much as I reasonably could, pushing them to their limit – which is important, because when you push a character as far as you can, you get to know them in a way nothing else allows for.

 

Throughout the course of the book, my characters have to decide what they’re willing to fight for, what they’re willing to die for – and even more, whether they’re willing to sacrifice their chance to be with the people they love. Because wondering if you’ll have to choose between saving what you have with those people and saving the lives of millions… I can think of worse things than that, but it’s pretty bad.

 

Especially when the story is ultimately about love, about what love costs, and in the end about how love can heal.

 

So I put my characters through hell. It wasn’t necessarily fun, but it was necessary, and at the end of the book I believed I had given them something meaningful to fight through, to fight for, and that whatever victory they managed to attain was truly worth something as a result. And that the love they all had for each other was worth something as well, because these people are all family more than anything else. I believed the destination justified the journey, but also the other way around.

 

I hope, if you take that journey with them, that you’ll feel the same.

 

 

Sword and Star

About Sword and Star

 

Three months after a brutal battle at Peris, Adam Yuga, Lochlan D’Bideshi, and their rebel fleet are embroiled in a new conflict. But things aren’t going well. Even with Lock’s homeship, Ashwina, at the head of the fleet, the Protectorate forces are adapting to their tactics. Before long, two devastating blows send the ragtag rebels on the run. But the greatest threat may come from within.

 

Since the battle at Peris, Protectorate loyalist Isaac Sinder’s determination to eliminate the rebel fleet has only intensified—along with his ambition. The Protectorate is decaying, and it’s clear to Isaac that only he can save it, by any means necessary.

 

As the situation worsens for the rebels, the strain begins to tell on everyone. But more than exhaustion grows within Adam. Something alien has started to change him. Lochlan fights to hold on, but even he may not be able to follow Adam down the dark road ahead.

 

As Isaac’s obsession turns to insanity, it becomes evident that more sinister plans than his are at work. Bound together by threads of fate and chance, Adam and Lochlan turn their eyes toward a future that may tear them apart—if they’re lucky enough to survive it at all.

 

 

About Sunny Moraine

 

Sunny Moraine’s short fiction has appeared in Clarkesworld, Strange Horizons, Nightmare, Lightspeed, Long Hidden: Speculative Fiction from the Margins of History, and multiple Year’s Best collections, among other places. They are also responsible for the novels Line and Orbit (cowritten with Lisa Soem), Labyrinthian, and the Casting the Bones trilogy, as well as A Brief History of the Future: collected essays. In addition to authoring, Sunny is a doctoral candidate in sociology and a sometimes college instructor; that last may or may not have been a good move on the part of their department. They unfortunately live just outside Washington DC in a creepy house with two cats and a very long-suffering husband.

Connect with Sunny: 

 

 

SwordAndStar_TourBanner

Giveaway

 

To celebrate the release of Sword and Star, Sunny is giving away a signed copy of the book and a handmade necklace. Leave a comment to enter the contest. Entries close at midnight, Eastern time, on May 28, 2016. Contest is NOT restricted to U.S. entries. Thanks for following the tour, and don’t forget to leave your contact info!

 

This title is #3 of the Root Code series.

This title is part of the Songs of Slipstream universe.

A BJ Review: Something Like a Love Song by Becca Burton

Rating:  4.25 stars out of 5

Something Like A Love SongOne tragic night left Landon and Dylan’s dreams of happily ever after in apparent ruin. Forced to overcome physical and emotional trauma, the young lovers turn to a network of family and friends as they attempt to rebuild their lives. Can their one constant—their love—survive the changes both undergo on the road to recovery?

Given the premise, I knew right off that this was going to be an extremely emotional story, and I wasn’t wrong. But it was also a very fast read despite being over three hundred pages. I enjoyed the author’s writing style—it’s easy to read and flowed well for me. It never once made me question what was going on or stop to think or re-read a passage.

The two main characters, Dylan and Landon, were nuanced and well-drawn, and each of the secondary characters added to the story in their own unique way. The multiple points of view was a bit strange, but in this case I think it really did add to the story to allow us to see not only how the incident and its aftermath affected many people other than just the main characters. Those small insights into what was going on with them also gave us a chance to see the main characters through outside eyes, which I found equally enlightening and enjoyable.   

It’s obvious that this author has a medical background as she took us through the process from the accident and initial trauma to recovery. Watching these guys struggle with pain, guilt, and the frustration and trials of rehabilitation was heartbreaking. It was also an uplifting testament to how love can overcome. Unlike many books that deal with hate crimes, there was basically no focus on finding the perpetrators. And after a bit of thought, I found that I actually liked that.

This story had a ton of emotion and feels, it took me from tears to laughter several times as we are shown episodes from before the incident. But it didn’t have much sex at all, and for I think it would have put it up into the five star story if I’d been able to see more of the couple’s physical relationship returning to normal. We’re only given tiny glimpses and a verbal promise, and must admit that left me wanting.

I don’t normally like when stories jump around in time, but this was an exception. The author did an excellent job of painting Landon’s old character through flashbacks and showing how his new self differed slightly even later after his recovery.  So many insights can be taken away from this book, one big one that stood out for me is how the things that happen to us can change us irrevocably, make us not into different people, as we are always one self, but into a new version of ourselves. To be happy, we must embrace, accept and love ourselves in the now and avoid the tendency to compare ourselves to either our past selves or to others. And I think that’s something we can all related to, because we all go through change in our life, sometimes it’s due to happy events, sometimes trauma, and sometimes simply aging.

Overall, this story left me feeling warm and hopeful. I highly recommend it.

I adore creative drawn covers, and this one is definitely that. It caught my attention and fits the story well.

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

Book Details:  

Kindle Edition, 308 pages
Published November 19th 2015 by Interlude Press
ASINB0181CFAXK
edition languageEnglish

A BJ Review: Y Negative by Kelly Haworth

Rating:  1.5 stars out of 5

Y Negative coverIn the last surviving cities of a ruined world, the concept of “woman” has been forgotten to history. Those unfortunate enough to lack a Y chromosome live as second-class citizens in a world dominated by mascs.

Ember is Y negative. He is scorned, bullied, abused by every masc he encounters, at work and at the gym. Not even his Y negative roommate cuts him any slack. He wants so desperately to be accepted as a masc that he’d rather buy black market testosterone than food. Something’s gotta give—he needs a change in his life, but has no idea how to find it.

Jess is a masc with a passion for studying the recovery of their devastated world. His boyfriend is pressuring him for more commitment, and his father expects him to take over the family business. He can’t wait to get away from civilization for his seasonal research out in the wild.

When Jess offers Ember a job, their lives collide in the isolated wasteland, and their initial attraction turns into a relationship that horrifies those around them. Soon their struggle to stay together and to be who they are turns into a fight for their lives.

This is going to be a hard review to write, but maybe that is fitting since the story itself was hard for me to read. It became clear as I got further into the book that this was not a story for me. For one thing, when I read a story, I need to feel a connection to at least one of the characters in order to fully engage with it. I didn’t feel that here. Didn’t feel any sort of chemistry between the characters.

The writing style didn’t work for me either, it actually seemed to distance me rather than draw me in. At various parts of the book, I despised pretty much every character, and that is saying something as I’m an easy-going sort of person.

At a few parts I just sat there staring at my kindle with my mouth open. Really. For example, a scene where Jess and Ember are first intimate, Jess’ appalling reaction at seeing him, his lack of caring even when he had to have known how he’d hurt Ember since he’d screamed out his pain and we know from a prior scene the walls are thin… then just telling him an hour later to get out there to work. OMG. No. Especially when Ember was right back to wanting him as if it didn’t happen a few pages later.

And try as I might, this story left me confused, frustrated, and alternately pissed off with various characters. Perhaps if there had been some sort of backstory in the book to explain why women were no longer thought of as women but as Y negatives and well, to explain so much more. Because I was confused.

After finishing the book, I read an article by the author that was published on this site a while back. Perhaps I should have read it before the book, it might have helped a little. But considering that math and science aren’t my thing, it still had my eyes crossing a bit. However, I recommend it prior to reading the story.

Overall, the premise is interesting, but the delivery of it didn’t work well for me personally.

The cover art by Jay Aheer made me look at this story, its dark and haunting and interesting.

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


Book Details:  

ebook, 317 pages
Published November 16th 2015 by Riptide Publishing
ISBN 1626493332 (ISBN13: 9781626493339)
edition languageEnglish
url
other editions (2)
Y Negative
Y Negative

A BJ Review: Linhart’s Beautiful Beast by Mel Bossa

Rating:  3.75 stars out of 5

Linhart's Beautiful Beast coverIn 1934 Quebec, Joseph Vega has been locked up in Linhart Prison for three years for an assault committed on a man who’d been in process of robbing his mother’s home. He’s lost track of himself and nearly forgotten how to feel in the cold, dark place.


When a beautiful ginger-head man named Christophe Dubois is led into his cell, Joe knows he’s in trouble. From the moment Joe lays eyes on the disowned son of an affluent politician, his life begins to change. Christophe is spoiled but also bold, curious, and feisty, and his presence opens up feelings that Joe has tried to bury and deny down for years. Eventually, Joe can’t resist the temptation of climbing into the man’s bunk. But he’s not the only one drawn by Dubois and soon Joe must fight to keep Christophe safe.

Inside they were thrown together in a cruel and barren place, but is the flame that burns between Joe and Chris enough to keep them together when they are released from the confining walls and face an even tougher world?

I have always been drawn to prison stories, and when I saw the cover and blurb this one called out to me. This one isn’t your typical prison story though, but a historical story with an interesting location and time period placing it during the Great Depression era during events leading up to World War II. Although much of the story takes place within the walls of Linhart, the plot touches on events both leading up to the two men’s incarceration and events after their release.

Those inside the prison pretty much lived up to my ideas of what had to be, but I found myself struggling with Joe’s mother’s reactions after his release, but kept reminding myself of the timeframe and that it was to be expected even if disappointing.

Both main characters were interesting and well-drawn. Watching Joe struggle to accept himself as his feelings for Chris emerged, as he slowly broke through the walls he’d built inside himself was the highlight of the story for me. I truly felt these two guy’s connection, their heat, and their pain.

However, the story’s pacing was uneven for me. It was slow to engage me, taking until the eleven percent mark on my kindle for me to really get invested enough to have the story begin to carry me along. Beyond that, some parts held me captivated and had me turning pages late into the night while others seemed to drag. There were some editing errors and a few places where I was left a bit confused.

Overall, this is a thought-provoking and touching story with some deeply poignant moments and an interesting setting and period.

The cover is quite fitting for this story showing the prison, the hot guy and the barren landscape with trees below.

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


Book Details:  

Kindle Edition, 217 pages
Published July 19th 2015 by JMS Books LLC (first published July 12th 2015)
ASINB010OTE1M4
edition languageEnglish

A BJ Review: The Downs by Kim Fielding

Rating:  4 stars out of 5

This story was written as a part of the M/M Romance Group’s “Love is an Open Road” event. Group members were asked to write a story prompt inspired by a photo of their choice. Authors of the group selected a photo and prompt that spoke to them and wrote a short story.

The Downs coverPrompt: Dear Author,
He stood, head bowed, body tense, waiting. No matter what happened next, his life would never be the same…
Please give this man his life changing event, whatever that may be, as long as he ends up with his HEA/HFN by the end. Thank you, Aislinn

This story reads rather like a fable or a dark fairy tale. It’s set in a fascinating dystopian world where those convicted of a crime are taken from the city, across the Reach and pitched over a cliff into the Downs where they are told they are being given to the demons for their pleasure.

Nicely done world building. The story begins with a Entian, a criminal who has been wrongly judged then carted across the desert, brutalized and thrown down a cliff, supposedly to the demons. However, he wakes instead to tender care at the hands of the gentle, scarred giant named Rig. Both of the main characters were intriguing. Although he hadn’t deserved what he got, Entian hadn’t been at all an innocent saint in his previous life. And Rig with his sad past and big, sweet bear personality is lovely. Both of their backstories are very developed for a story of this length.

This story had many elements I enjoy: dark, dystopian, hurt/comfort, scarred/broken characters, and a sweet love story. There is action but for the most part it moves at a steady pace that lets us sink gently into the world and the relationship.

This isn’t only a romance, but a fable-like tale of betrayal, second chances, and vengeance. Little truths sneak out from its pages. Like for example how sometimes it’s the unfortunate events that brings us to the exact place where we find what it is we most needed all along. But Entian’s determined desire for revenge even after he’d created a life with Rig was the one sour note in the story for me. I did end up liking how it played out though. So overall a great story with a sweet and fitting end.

The cover is lovely and uses the actual prompt photograph from the m/m romance group which inspired the story!

Free Story which can be found here.

Book Details: 

book, 95 pages
Published June 10th 2015 by M/M Romance Group @ Goodreads
edition language English
url http://www.mmromancegroup.com/?p=276854
characters Enitan Javed, Rig (The Downs)

A MelanieM Review: Roughstock: Blind Ride – Season One by B.A. Tortuga

Rating: 3.25 stars out of 5

Blind Ride cover 2Jason Scott is at the top of the field in his career, that of professional bull riding.  Jason, along with his traveling partner and best friend, Andy Baxter, are riding the circuit, both hoping to finish at the top of the boards and win enough money to see each of them set for life.  Jason and Bax have been dancing around the fact that they are crazy about each other.  Each is afraid of losing his best friend if they admit how much they actually love each other. It will take something huge to make a change in their relationship.

Being a professional bullrider is a dangerous game and in one horrible instant everything changes for both Jason and Bax.  When a ride on one of the top bulls goes wrong, an injury to Jason’s head causes him to go blind. Reeling, Jason and Bax retreat to Jason’s family ranch to recover and wonder what’s next for them both.  For Jason, it appears his life is over and he has nothing to live  for.  Bax is determined to prove him wrong, both personally and professionally.

Bax thinks Jason can ride the bulls even blind.  But it will take Bax, his love and their small circle of friends to prove to Jason that even blind bullriders have their life and love ahead of them.

I have a huge fondness for both the Roughstock series and its author, BA Tortuga.  So it pains me when I have to report that this story, while having so many of the great qualities I have come to expect from this series, is guaranteed to frustrate the reader to the point that it is hard to recommend it. First let’s look at the merits of this story.

The characters are wonderful.  Jason “Mini” Scott and Andy “Bax” Baxter are typical of the cowboys you will find in the stories of B.A. Tortuga.  Their personalities are so authentic to the bull riding circuit and the locale that I would also expect to run into them at any PBR event.  They become so real that they feel like a part of your family.  And it is this intimacy that connects the reader to them and their futures.  You feel the dust that coats them as they pick themselves up off the arena floor and the pain their profession inflicts upon their bodies.  They are just so realistic that you hurt for them.  And Tortuga is one of the best authors around when it comes to dialog.  The words that issue out of the mouths of her cowboys ring with authentic local flavor and colloquialisms.  And it does so without being hokey or off sounding.  Here they are heading down the road to get supper:

Bax threw his duffel back, too, sliding into the driver’s side. “So, where to? I figure that one little place where you circle your order will be closed.” “There’s that one place by the highway — about twenty minutes out. It’s nothing but old ranchers taking their women out. Nice T-bones.” And he always got tickled by those tables with the ads printed on them. Reminded him of going to auction with Pa-paw.

“That works.” The big dualie slid right into traffic like an elephant into a herd of zebras, Bax muscling them right in.

They scooted down 35, radio blaring. He found a pack of smokes in the console and lit one for Bax, then got himself one. Three days of rest, then Tulsa.

“You think we ought to try and hit home ‘fore Tulsa?” It was kinda eerie sometimes, the way Bax read his mind. Then again, they’d been on the road together for nigh on six years.

“We can. Momma’d like to see us. ‘Course, we could go on to the city. Goof off. Depends on how much you want Momma’s pineapple upside down cake.”

“Oh, I’d rather go see your momma.” That man did have a sweet tooth. Pineapple upside down was Bax’s very favorite.

“Cool. I’ll call her. Let her know we’ll be in.” He took a deep drag, grinned. Lord, lord. “I hope your knee’s up to riding fence.”

“Shit, you know it. Just don’t ask me to walk fence.” Wheeling around a little Honda, Bax started humming with George on the radio, off tune as anything. “Nah. You wouldn’t be worth shit in Tulsa, then.”

They both hooted, and Jason leaned back, easy in his bones. Man, event win number three. Check in his pocket. Him and Bax heading for steak.

Life, she was good.

Of course, we know it’s all going to change and soon.  But in that short exchange we see the ease and contentment of Jason and Bax’s relationship.  It sings of a friendship long established and perhaps much more.

And once they fess up and go for a full romantic relationship, it is still in keeping with their cowboy ways and personalities.  No flowers here.

 It was like a good ride, all motion and want and spinning. He tried to warn Bax, tried to let the man know he was gonna be way quick off the mark, but it wasn’t happening. And it didn’t seem to matter one bit. Bax was pushing him on, making these amazing noises, just as hot for him as the Fourth of July.

Their relationship is hot, sexy, and emotionally deep.  How we fall for them.

Pretty much everything works here for much of the story.  The narrative suffers a bit from almost too much sex.  We want more of Jason coming to grips with his blindness.  And we want to see exactly how Jason, with Bax and Coke’s help, will learn to ride again.  At one point, even Bax remarks that he and Jason have sex instead of talking.  OK, but as a reader, while I love the hot sex, I want more of the relationship that produces it.

After all I have been through with Jason and Bax, feeling side by side with them on their emotional rollercoaster, I want and deserve to have the emotional payoff I expect at the end of the story.  And that is exactly what’s missing.  No “aha” moment, no ending.  Nothing.  It just stops prior to Jason ever getting back up on a bull, even one on his friend’s ranch.  The emotional reward, the moment everything has been building up to never happens. Frustrating? You betcha.  And totally unexpected from this seasoned author.  And it is this aspect that dragged the rating down to a 3 star rating.

So who should read this book?  Well, hard core fans of B.A. Tortuga for one as well as fans of the Roughstock series.  Coke, AJ, Bax and Jason are the core characters of the Roughstock series so its good to have this part of the story.  But that lack of ending just makes me want to grab a beer and go watch some PBR instead of continuing to bemoan what could have been an outstanding book.

Cover art by Posh Gosh.  I like this cover, it feels more representative of the story and characters.  Terrific job.

Sales Links:  Pride Publications |  Amazon | Buy It Here

Book Details:

ebook, Pride Publications (a LGBT imprint of Totally Bound, now Totally Entwined)
Published July 7th 2015 by Totally Bound Publishing (first published January 1st 2007)
original titleRoughstock: Blind Ride – Season One
ISBN139781784306397
edition languageEnglish
seriesRoughstock #1
charactersJason Scott, Andy Baxter settingUnited States

Books in the Roughstock series:

Roughstock: Blind Ride — Season One – Novel, m/m, core
Give it Time: the Seven of Wands – Novella, m/m
Roughstock: And a Smile — Season One – Novel, m/m, core
Doce — A Roughstock Story – Novella, m/m
Amorzinhos — A Roughstock Story – Novela, m/m, threesome
Roughstock: File Gumbo — Season One – Novel, m/m, core
Roughstock: And a Smile — Coke’s Clown – Novela, m/m,
Shutter Speed, A Roughstock Story: the Seven of Pentacles – Novella, m/m
Roughstock: City/Country – Novel, m/f
Roughstock: Picking Roses – Novel, m/f
Needing To: A Roughstock Story – Novella, m/m

Upcoming Roughstock Novels
Roughstock: What She Wants – Novel, m/m/f
Roughstock: Tag Team – Season Two – Novel, m/m
Roughstock: Terremoto – Season Two- Novel, m/m

Roughstock Shorts:
Cowboy Christmas (Coke and Dillon)
Barbed Wire and Bootheels (Sam and Beau)
Some Good Doctoring (CB and Jonesy) – Free Read

 

Can A Broken Man Be Fixed by Love? Find out in Pure Innocence by Victoria Sue (author interview,excerpt and giveaway)

Pure Take 3a

Pure Innocence (Pure #3) by Victoria Sue
Release Date: June 6, 2015

Banner300x250

Goodreads Link
Publisher: Dark Hollows Press
Cover Artist: 3 Rusted Spoons

Sales Links:  Amazon – All Romance (ARe) – DHPress – Smashwords – Bookstrand

Today I’m very lucky to be interviewing (Victoria) author of (Pure – Innocence)

Hi (Victoria), thank you for agreeing to this interview. Tell us a little about yourself, your background, and your current book.

• Why do you write? Because I never won the lottery! No, seriously – I started on a dare just over a year ago.

• Which of your books was the most difficult to write? The last one – Innocence. And I know you’re going to ask me why – it’s because they caught the bad guy in the last book. No one was getting kidnapped, stalked, tortured or murdered. This one is all about a man trying to heal. I felt that was a gamble.

• Give us an insight into your main character. What does he/she do that is so special? Damon just turns his well-ordered life on his head for a damaged sub that had no one else to help him heal.

• How much research do you do for your books? Quite a bit. I’m currently writing a werewolf (MMMM) story. Unfortunately, I haven’t found one werewolf to interview, never mind four!

• Who designs your covers? An amazing lady called Eden, from 3 Rusted Spoons. You will find her on Face Book

Pure Innocence Blurb:

They’d finally caught the madman who had been kidnapping, torturing and murdering submissives. Damon had knelt in that warehouse, clutching Oliver, the boy barely alive, and somehow in the weeks that followed Damon never seemed to be able to let him go.

Oliver is broken, in body, mind, and spirit. And for the first time since he brought him home from the hospital, Damon starts to question himself. Is he going to be enough for Oliver? If he can somehow find all the pieces of Oliver’s broken soul, will he be able to mend them? Or have the horrors that ripped through Oliver left too many holes for Damon to repair? And finally, if he tries and fails to put Oliver back together, will Damon be able to stop his own heart from shattering in the process?
Pages or Words: 48,000 words

Categories: Contemporary, M/M Romance, BDSM (though only mentioned due to background. There is no direct BDSM in this book.)

Series should be read in order. Book two should definitely be read to understand book three.

An Excerpt from Pure Innocence…

Oliver hadn’t realized he was crying when Damon came back, until Damon wiped his face with his finger. He gulped a breath.

“Sorry. I’m sorry.”

“What for now?”

“I can leave. They’ve taken the bandages off now. I’ll—”

Damon shook his head. “We need to go over this again, boy, don’t we?”

Oliver raised his face. “You call me that, but I’m not, am I?”

Damon tilted his head. “Do you want to be?”

Oliver mumbled and glanced down again. Damon held his chin. “Oliver, look at me please.” Oliver raised his eyes to those warm grey ones. “Do you want to be my boy?”

Oliver nodded, then shook his head. “I’m broken. I could never be anyone’s boy. And I can’t be hurt.” Oliver lifted his chin as he spoke those bald, bare words. He stripped them of every emotion. Damon had to understand. If he was going to throw him away, it was better sooner than later. “Ever. I can’t be hurt ever again.”

Damon stood up and took two strides to the window. He turned his back and Oliver shrank. It was coming, he’d finally tipped him over the edge. His heart, so fragile for so long, was going to finally break in two. Oliver looked wildly around the room. He had to get out of here.

“Apart from being too slow to catch the bastard that did this, what did I ever do wrong to you?” Damon sounded so hurt.

Oliver’s mouth dropped as his mind crowded with Damon’s words. Bewildered, he shook his head. “You didn’t do anything to me.”

Damon turned. “Then why would you just insult me by thinking for one second I would imagine you to be in any head space where you would think either I would hurt you, or that you would find it pleasurable? Or worse, that I would?” Damon’s grey eyes flashed in anger. “I have repeatedly told you why you are here, boy. I do not lie, unless it’s a cover story I have to make up for my job. I haven’t lied to you since I untied you from that cross. Either you decide, right now, you can trust me, or I will arrange for the doctors to transfer you to a private nursing home. You will receive excellent professional care and it won’t cost you a penny. You will still be visited by the same people you would have been visited by before.” Damon’s mouth twisted on the last words. “I am sorry, Oliver. I have failed you again. I don’t know any other way of making you feel safe.”

Before Oliver could even think of a reply, in four strides, Damon was out of the bedroom and had closed the door behind him.

 

About the author:

MM Love stories – because the only thing better than one hot guy is two of them.

Has loved books for as long as she can remember. Books were always what pocket money went on and what usually Father Christmas brought. When she ran out of her kids’ adventure stories, she would go raid her mom’s. By the age of eight she was devouring classics like Little Women, and fell in love with love stories.

She’s still in love with them. Any size, any shape, any creature – love is love, no matter what it says on the box.
In fact if they don’t fit very neatly into any box she loves them even more!

She has a very patient husband and three wonderful children. In 2010 in search of adventure they all moved from the UK to the US and are happily settled in Florida. Finally, after reading love stories for so long, she decided to write her own.
Where to find the author:

Facebook Author Page: https://www.facebook.com/victoriasueauthor
Twitter: @vickysuewrites
Other: http://www.victoriasue.com

Giveaway

Giveaway: Must be 18 years of age or older to enter. Link and prizes provided by the author and Pride Promotions. Enter to win a Rafflecopter Prize: E-copies of all three books in the series.

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Tour Dates & Stops: June 15 – June 26, 2015
15-Jun
Parker Williams
16-Jun
Love Bytes
Amanda C. Stone
MM Good Book Reviews
17-Jun
Havan Fellows
18-Jun
Hearts on Fire
Mikky’s World of Books
BFD Book Blog
19-Jun
Inked Rainbow Reads
Happily Ever Chapter
Scattered Thoughts & Rogue Words
22-Jun
Divine Magazine
23-Jun
Rainbow Gold Reviews
24-Jun
Molly Lolly
25-Jun
Vampires, Werewolves, and Fairies, Oh My
Kimi-Chan
26-Jun
Bayou Book Junkie

 

A BJ Review: Fidelity by Lia Black

Rating:  5 stars out of 5

How far can a man go in the name of faith?

Fidelity cover

While most of his order choose a female, Father Gareth De’Aubyn chose the handsome Fidelity as his guardian and fell in love with his angel during his prayers. When he leaves the Crusaders to minister to the very people his armies once threatened, his beloved angel falls from the Heavens in his search for him. Soon Gareth finds himself at death’s door and calls to the Creator for aide in protecting his flock. But its Fydelis, no longer an angel but now the demonic aspect of regret and toy of the Sunderer, who comes to his rescue. In exchange for help, Gareth must promise his soul to the Sunderer, god of the underworld. Bargain made, its Fydelis who must lead his love, the man he thought had abandoned him, on his task of collecting twenty strong and stubborn souls. Their journey together tests everything they thought they knew about faith, love, and fidelity.

Well-written with excellent pacing, this story had me enthralled from the gripping first scene onward. Being that I was quite swamped in real life when I read this, I didn’t breeze through it as I most assuredly would have if I’d had time. On retrospect, I actually don’t regret that. It allowed me to savor the story, and cuddle these lovely broken guys in my mind over a matter of days rather than hours. And this is a story well-worth savoring, let me tell you!

If you enjoy dark stories about broken boys, like I do, my advice is… read this book right now. There isn’t just one but two deliciously damaged men here, broken at the start and falling to pieces all along the journey’s way. Two men both in love, both thinking they’d been abandoned by the other, now united on the lurid task set before them, one knowing who the other is, one in the dark.

Usually early on in a good story, I’m locked into one of the characters so much that my heart bleeds and breaks for him, this is that times two. I’d be hard pressed to say which of these guys touched me more. Gareth who wants so much to help others and do what he thinks is right that he even scourges his back to keep himself from having impure urges; or Fydelis who has suffered so much at the hands of the gruesome Sunderer.

Dark and not for the faint-hearted, one particular scene at the beginning took my breath away with its grisly, shocking cruelty. But amidst the bloody battle scenes, there is humor, small joys, and sweet tenderness. Amidst the dismantling, we are put back together. The ride to get there is gut-wrenching, heartbreaking, and painful to read at parts. And I bloody well loved it. All of it.

From the first book I read by this author, I was hooked. She’s now firmly one of my two favorite m/m authors. I’d be hard pressed to choose between Black and Lanyon. But Lia Black somehow (by magic?) looks into my head and heart and gives me what I love, pushes my buttons, presses my boundaries, and does it every single time.

The cover is a stunner, just gorgeous. From the seal of the order, the stern and righteous Gareth in his armor with sword, Fydelis as a young long haired human and the wings in the background… its just absolutely perfect. Bravo!

Sales Link:  Amazon  Buy It Here

Book Details:

Kindle Edition, 213 pages
Published May 1st 2015 by VineDark/ BlackHouse Press
ASINB00W4BS5R8
edition languageEnglish