Tag: LGBTQIA Contemporary Romance

Review: The Cowboy Contract (Foster Ranch Book 1) by B.A. Tortuga

Rating: 4.5 🌈

The first in a new series, The Cowboy Contract (Foster Ranch Book 1) by B.A. Tortuga is another in this author’s lovely cozy cowboy contemporary romances.

This one sets itself apart in that it’s low angst with little to no high drama but instead relies almost solely on the real , relatable characters and elements of foster care and the issues children have when adapting into their new environment.

It does start off with the premise of contract husband but that is quickly discarded when the foster children come into play and their needs as well as troubled history takes center stage.

As it should.

Former bull riders, star Ryder Vittor who was forced into retirement by a broken neck, and , Kase McDaniel, who’s major wreck crushed so many bones in his body, that retiring was never in doubt, are a perfect pairing.

As superbly crafted by Tortuga, they are so familiar with each other, so in sync and comfortable with their actions and thoughts it’s as though they’ve been together for a longer time period. Which they have as bull riders on the circuit. Extremely realistic and easy.

She makes these men absolutely believable in every way, from their speech to their relationship and how they relate to those around them.

That includes the marvelous lesbian married grandmothers who raised Ryder and help run both the ranch and rodeo enterprises. Strong, impactful women and wonderful characters .

However, your heart will truly belong to the four foster children that comes into the lives of everyone who lives on the Chiara ranch. That’s a orphaned family of four. Charlie, a sixteen-year-old girl. Elijah, an eleven-year-old boy, Dani, eight-year-old girl, and tiny Nell, a two-year-old baby girl.

They arrive with a heartbreaking history, separate issues and sets of challenges, and personalities to endear themselves to the family at the ranch and readers alike.

Of course, there’s animals like adorable dogs, goats, and horses too.

This is one sweet, moving, heartwarming romance. You will want to just curl up and sink into this group of characters and children as they work their way into becoming a family .

It’s a marvelous journey and one you won’t want to miss.

I highly recommend it. And wonder what the next story in this series will bring.

Goodreadshttps://www.goodreads.com › showThe Cowboy Contract (Foster Ranch, #1) by B.A. Tortuga

Description:

Ryder Vittor has almost everything he could ever want. He was a successful bull rider, he runs a rodeo company and a ranch for his family, and he’s right where he wants to be. Until his grandmother issues him an ultimatum. Now he has to get married and have kids if he wants to keep the life he loves, but he can’t exactly produce a man and a baby out of thin air, can he? So he sets out to hire a husband in order to get what he needs.

Kase McDaniel is at the end of his rope. His bull riding career has ended in a bad crash, his family doesn’t want him back, and he has nowhere to go. When Ryder offers to let him come stay at Ryder’s New Mexico ranch, he’s grateful, but he’s stunned when he finds out Ryder intends to make a contract with a stranger to marry him and raise kids with him. Kase has been in love with Ryder for years, so why shouldn’t he put in for the job?

Neither one of them has any idea what they’re setting in motion when they tie the knot, and soon they’re overrun with foster kids, rodeo family, and more. Can Kase and Ryder find something real in all the chaos, or will they be parting ways when the contract ends?

Review: Kaleidoscope Sunsets (A Color of Love Novella) by V.L. Locey

Rating: 4🌈

Mega sports agent Arn Toras has been a minor staple of multiple stories, popping in to give advice, stand by his athletes, or be a fierce advocate for them when they or anything they might represent is attacked.

His appearances haven’t been long but Arn has always made a huge impact on every scene he’s in.

So it’s lovely that Locey decided to give such a strong and important character his own story.

Long known to be heterosexual and work obsessed, Arn has to undergo some major changes here in order for this story and a romance to be believable.

And in most aspects, it does.

Locey successfully builds onto a personality we are already familiar with. We meet Arn anew. Already incredibly powerful and successful, Arn is not slowing down. But his body , his lifestyle, and frankly his age, are trying too, along with his doctor.

We see a Arn who’s not trying to look to introspectively at the life he’s living, or more truthfully, not living. He’s let work preside over friends, and what family he’s got left. And it’s taking a role on his health.

Arn is realistic and someone we can relate to.

There’s always one more thing that needs to be done before you get to set down. If ever.

That one more thing is signing the next Hockey God, Anders Viklund, a young Swedish hockey player from a small fishing village. Arn is determined his agency will be the one to sign him.

That brings us to the next outstanding element of this story. Kullaka, Sweden. That’s the fishing village and hometown of the Viklund family.

I’m not sure if there’s a real village that Kullaka is a stand in for , but surely there must be. For this small charming place sings with life! From the quays with its bobbing fishing boats, to the castle at the top of the mountain, it’s Eel Festival, and the abbey, it’s a breathing, salty, laughter filled small town you are dying to walk or peddle through.

That includes the small B & B run by Mrs Maja, full of cats and clocks, Arn is forced to stay in as there’s a Eel Festival going on. A stay that becomes part of a life changing visit. This tiny house, full of ticking clocks, cats, and a merry wonderful woman is such a great element here. I loved it!

It’s just a starting point for a beginning of sea changes in Arn’s life. How he views himself and his life.

I would be close to saying I loved this story but the only aspect I’m hesitant about is the romance. Which is sort of a big issue.

Everyone and everything else here is outstanding. Foundation, characters, Arn, his personality and need for a change. Yes!

But the person who’s at the heart of that change? That for me is the weakest link here.

Anders Viklund is all young, blue eyes, gorgeous, sexy, competent hockey player. He loves his dad. He’s gay. He’s nice and kind.

Why don’t I feel like he’s got layers to him?

I never felt like there was a character there that would have had enough substance to have induced the sort of change that was pulled from Arn.

Maybe a “oh know, I think I’m bi” revelation. That would be realistic here. And yes it happens. Immediately. Get that. But the rest?

Anders’ father, Lucas, he was a solid, powerful figure and one that made a significant contribution and impact. More so than his son, in my opinion.

Locey writes beautifully. So many great secondary characters and the magnificent Arn. Along with the entire village of Kullaka.

I just wish Anders had been as good as the rest or as deserving.

A Color of Love is a wonderful series and this is one more terrific installment! Check it out! I’m recommending it.

Review: The Barkeep and The Bookseller (Campo Royale #3) by V.L. Locey

Rating: 4.75 🌈

V.L. Locey’s Campo Royale series is truly a favorite of mine. With every new storyline and couple, it goes into new territory and new relationship dynamics while still playing within the universe Locey has created for the series and characters. That’s the fabulous drag club, the Campo Royale and the Queen Mother, Sitka!

It’s time for Corduroy “Cord” Lopez, the pink haired, adorable, bartender of the Campo Royale, to find love and happiness. He’s been a staple in the other books, and now gets his own romance.

We delve into his personal history to see the stress and tight circumstances under which he’s living in order to provide a stable, happy life for his daughter. A joyful girl, diagnosed with Mosaic Down syndrome, she’s his everything.

Locey’s descriptions and excellent writing brings the characters and father/daughter loving relationship realistically to life. She’s all kid, peanut butter smears , meltdowns, hugs, and all. I love this family unit, including the grandmothers.

Jagger Collins is another terrific character, a haunted man coming off the trauma of an abusive ex husband and the mental breakdown it caused. He’s still in recovery, using the support of a wonderful therapist and friends and his brother to help move forward.

Locey’s portrait of a shattered man in recovery, one learning to trust in himself again, is gentle, and moving. There’s no flashbacks, nothing to act as triggers I think, however, Jagger does remember , verbally, the attack the ended the marriage and put him in the hospital.

Watching Jagger and Cord become close, then take the fragile steps to become lovers, then a family, is so heartwarming and wonderful. It’s moments with Jagger’s scottie who farts …a lot. Or the scenes with Paloma, Cord’s daughter, a heart stealer, who takes a liking to both Jagger and his dog!

I could definitely do with another story to see where they go from the HFN that the note they end on here.

It’s realistic and so great. I definitely want more.

Luckily I believe we will see more of them like we do the others in the new stories to come. I can’t wait!

I’m highly recommending The Barkeep and The Bookseller (Campo Royale #3) by V.L. Locey .

Campo Royale series:

✓ The Viking and the Drag Queen #1

✓ The Batchelor and the Cherry #2

✓ The Barkeep and The Bookseller #3

https://www.goodreads.com › showThe Barkeep and the Bookseller (Campo Royale #3) by V.L. Locey – Goodreads

Synopsis:

Can two men move past their shattered dreams and create a new future together?

Corduroy Lopez is a hard-working man. He has to be. There really is no alternative. He’s a single father with a beautiful, special needs daughter to support. His mother and grandmother help when they can, but he’s a proud pan man who is determined to make it on his own. When his daughter is accepted into a prestigious developmental education preschool, Cord needs cash and he needs it yesterday. One night, offhandedly, the cute owner of the new bookstore in town mentions wanting to start a drag story hour, Cord leaps at the chance. He’s done drag before. Once. Performing on stage at the Campo hadn’t really been his thing but donning a wig and dress to sing children’s songs while strumming a ukulele should be a much more enjoyable experience. Also, the bookshop owner is adorable, newly single, and spending a great deal of time sitting at Cord’s bar sipping virgin piña coladas after the bookstore closes.

Jagger Collins never meant to end up here. He’d been a happily married man with a swanky job in a Philadelphia bank just two years ago. Then the bottom fell out of his life. His marriage combusted, his job quickly followed, and he found himself with only his dog Hamish, his brother, and half the cash from the home he thought he would be starting a family in. Taking the advice of his elder sibling to heart, he left the big city and bought a small brick building in downtown Wilmington. Trading in ties for tomes, Jagger is now embracing the simpler things in life. Reading, biking, knitting, and admiring the lithe bartender at the Campo Royale. Cord is ticking all the right boxes in a big way, but Jagger’s not sure if he’s ready to put his heart on the line again.

The Barkeep and the Bookseller is a single father guy next door gay romance that features a hard-working dad, a learning-to-love again bookdealer, a precocious preschooler, high heels, a loving family, flashy floral fashions, and a ukulele rich happy-ever-after.

Review: Stroker (Big Bull Mechanics #2) by K.M. Neuhold

Rating: 5🌈

Stroker, second novel in the Big Bull Mechanics series, is such a strong, emotional story. Not just a romance but the journey of two men back together, their individual struggles with their past history (together and their own), and their current shaky status to discover if they can learn to grow and trust enough to have a relationship.

Honestly, the bar has been set high by this story for any that follows it.

Gates, Steele’s 40 ish younger brother, who’s always been a family disaster and vagabond, is someone we met in Crankshaft. Gates was undergoing a personal physical crisis that made him return to his hometown after a significant amount of time traveling around the country.

The mystery and pain hinted at there between Gates and Tallahassee is delved into fully here, along with Gates dealing with the ramifications of his surgery for testicular cancer.

Somehow , the Big Bull Garage works so well as a grounding point for the men of the series and the story. Like a family’s kitchen table, the garage acts like a center where everyone comes together to work, chat, reflect, act as a Greek chorus on each other’s lives. It feels believable and , ‘wipe the grease from your hands’ sort of real.

Tallahassee has been working with Steele, his best friend, hiding the pain that still feels so raw whenever he sees Gates, the man he used to call a friend, the one everyone calls a screwup, the man he married and who left him eight years ago.

Tallahassee is a great character. With a pet parrot with a smutty mouth, Tallahassee’s anguish over Gate’s return, then his illness, then his close proximity is so raw , and torn. Neuhold makes Tal’s indecisiveness and anger absolutely understandable.

But so does the author make us and Tal eventually understand that Gates has been growing up, especially since his operation. He’s making internal changes. Ones the readers are there with him, as the revelations hit. Sad, painful revelations about himself and his decisions. And how they have effected others and his family.

It’s so moving, and emotionally realistic the way Tallahassee and Gates slowly find their way back into each other’s trust and hearts. They communicate, share their fears, and hopes. It’s fragile. Especially when Gates is confronting his fears about his scars and the ramifications from his surgery.

This is what makes this so wonderful to read.

I felt like I was sharing a special moment with them. And Nigel, the parrot, of course.

Stroker is sexy, sensitive, beautifully written with fantastic, well defined characters. One of my favorites!

I’m highly recommending it.

Big Bull Mechanics:

✓ Crankshaft #1

✓ Stroker #2

Book 2 of 2: Big Bull Mechanics

Synopsis:

Is there an easy way to tell your lifelong best friend that you secretly married his brother eight years ago? Asking for a friend…

When Gates shows up needing a place to crash , I offer him my spare room. Whatever happened between us nearly a decade ago is water under the bridge. I don’t lie awake at night wondering what could have been. Nope, definitely not.

But Gates seems determined to get a rise out of me. He’s tie-dyed all my clothes, removed my bedroom door, and replaced my hand soap with lube. I’m not sure if he’s hoping I’ll kick him out or kill him, but he won’t break me that easily.

When he tells me his Stroker Rod is broken… What kind of mechanic am I if I don’t get hands-on with his problem?

We put our feelings behind us a long time ago, and there’s no way I’ll let Gates break my heart again. No amount of fiddling under the hood will fix everything broken between us. From here on out, it’s purely physical. Right?


Yup, just a couple of guys and their stroker rods.

***Stroker is a best friend’s brother, secretly married, super steamy MM romance.

🔹Connected to The Four Bears Construction Company series.

———-

Unless it’s noted, all books reviewed have been purchased by the reviewer.

Review: Balanced and Tied (Marshals #5) by Mary Calmes

Rating: 4.75 🌈

Balanced and Tied, fifth in the Marshals series, is a terrific story. It combines the wonderful qualities I love about Mary Calmes characters with a slow to realization love story and a mystery for added suspense.

Uniting the unique worlds of law enforcement and ballet, we have two men whose love for each other has been balanced between deepest friendship and that of something more since the day they met.

Celso Harrington, principal dancer with the Chicago Ballet Company, has long since admitted to himself that what he feels for Eli is definitely more than friendship. But Eli is his everything, including family, and he’s hesitant to go for more.

For Deputy US Marshal Eli Kohn , Cel is his constant. Without even noticing it, Cel is the one he wants to talk to, listen to, and just have near when things have gone wrong. What Eli hasn’t done, is taken a hard look at what that means in terms of a relationship. He’s never thought of himself as bisexual but he hasn’t ruled it out.

Calmes brings us intimately into this established relationship, giving us small memories of their past moments, so we see how they reached their current stage of a unacknowledged partnership that’s deep and fully realized. It’s so believable. And it includes Eli’s Jewish mother, who immediately adopts Cel as part of the family, taking him to synagogue, enveloping him with maternal love and grounding him in the religion that’s so much a part of the Kohn family lives. She’s a wonderful heartwarming element here.

Calmes swings easily between narrators, threading through storylines of law enforcement and ballet events as well as characters from both men’s professions. We get to know many secondary characters when a mystery and dramatic events start to happen when a new ballet is to be staged to great misery.

I wish the one villain had been a little better fleshed out but the rest of the characters, story, and romance was so terrific and entertaining that I can move past that.

Cel and Eli are a great example of friends to lovers trope. They make sense in that they had the relationship already but one just hadn’t made the connection mentally when the emotional elements were already in place. Calmes makes us believe in them and their love.

I’m highly recommending Balanced and Tied (Marshals #5) by Mary Calmes. It works as a standalone so it’s not necessary to have read others in this series.

Marshals series:

◦ All Kinds Of Tied Down #1

◦ Fit To Be Tied #2

◦ Tied Up In Knots #3

◦ Twisted and Tied #4

✓ Balanced and Tied #5

https://www.amazon.com › Balance…Balanced and Tied (Marshals Book 5) – Kindle edition – Amazon.com

Synopsis:

Deputy US Marshal Eli Kohn is doing fine. As the Director of Public Affairs for the Northern District, he represents the USMS in Chicago and that suits him. Yes, it’s wearing to always be on, to smile and wave even in the face of adversity, but he’s good at his job, and no one ever sees him sweat. His personal life, though, has been stagnant, and that doesn’t seem likely to change. But that’s fine too. Eli would much rather spend his free time with his best friend Cel. And lately, when they’re not together, he’s been missing him more and more…

Celso Harrington, principal dancer with the Chicago Ballet Company, has been feeling adrift, yearning for someone to be there for him, to ground him. Strange to find that anchor in a man who caught bad guys for a living. Celso is all about art and beauty; Eli is all about safety and public service. They could not be more different, yet from the moment they met, it felt like they’d known each other forever.

They are exactly what the other needs, and Celso would love them to be more than friends, but he can’t jeopardize what they have, and Eli’s too stuck inside his own head. When events threaten to unravel their carefully built haven, they each must take a chance on the other or risk losing everything.

———-

Unless it’s noted, all books reviewed have been purchased by the reviewer.

Review: Blade (Boston Rebels Book 5) by RJ Scott and V.L. Locey

Rating: 5🌈

Blade, the 5th novel in the Boston Rebels series, is absolutely my favorite story to date. Even with the issues I’ve mentioned when reviewing some of the preceding books still present, the storylines, the outstanding characters, and their quietly remarkable romance shine so strongly that everything else is forgotten.

We are given two main characters, with different traumatic events in their background. Both stem from catastrophic events.

For former Boston Rebels hockey player, Moral “Dunny” Dunkirk, it’s a plane accident that has left him a depressed amputee without his team and unable to go forward.

Cooper Harvey, inventor and billionaire, was orphaned at a early age in an volcanic explosion, that came close to taking his and his uncle’s. A brilliant inventor as well as owner of a enormous company which uses his inventions in multiple ways, Cooper is autistic which makes relying on a special circle of people necessary in order to navigate life .

In every way, through dialogue, detailed scenes, the authors knowledge of people who have or are struggling with PTSD, adjusting to life as a amputee, the loss of a lifetime passion and love of hockey, depression, the challenges someone who is autistic faces throughout their lifetime, from bullying in school to prejudice in the board of directors.

It’s such a deeply honest and emotional display of men at their most raw and flayed. Watching Dunny rebuild his life with the help and love of Cooper is so heartwarming, so heartfelt that you want to reread passages as soon as you finish them.

I laughed at Cooper’s jokes, and cried with Dunny at each step forward he made. And together, they were quietly unstoppable.

I wasn’t ready for their story to finish. As I’ve remarked before, this really isn’t about a team as it is the men leaving it. I have zero feelings about the Rebels. But about Dunny and Cooper? They are everything!

I could see a series about a sled team. Now THAT would be something to read about.

I’m highly recommending Blade (Boston Rebels Book 5) by RJ Scott and V.L. Locey. It is easily the finest book in the series or contemporary romance I’ve read lately.

https://www.goodreads.com › showBlade by R.J. Scott – Goodreads

Boston Rebels:

🔹Top Shelf #1

🔹Back Check #2

🔹Snowed #3

🔹Royal Lines #4

🔹Blade #5

Synopsis:

Love doesn’t have a formula. It’s messy, unpredictable, and impossible to control for the autistic billionaire inventor and the hockey player who believes he’s lost everything.

Moral “Dunny” Dunkirk has a passion for life. A robust outdoorsman, lover of life, and one of the Boston Rebels fan favorites, Dunny has always embraced excitement and the drive to try new things. During his inaugural flight behind the controls of a small plane, the fates decide to test his mettle in a way that he had never envisioned. When everything crashes down around him, he’s lost in depression and alone in his cabin, facing an existence that is nothing like the one he previously led. Desperate to find some hope, Dunny reaches out to The Harvey Foundation who might be able to help, and he soon finds himself being lifted out of the pit of darkness he’d fallen into one shy uplifting smile at a time.

Accidental billionaire and inventor Cooper Harvey is only happy in the seclusion of his lab, creating new and wonderful things he is sure will make the world a better place. Being on the spectrum, he knows being autistic means he’s different to others, but it’s in a good way, and it only makes him better at what he does. Other than being blackmailed into spending every fourth Sunday at his PA’s house for dinner, he avoids the chaos of the world, and if that means no social life, then he’s okay with that. In the most splendid isolation money can buy, he escapes the complicated and difficult emotions surrounding attraction, and his single-minded focus means that sex and love have never appeared on his list. When his latest invention reaches the testing stage, he would normally hand it over to his development team, but a chance meeting with the test subject makes him rethink. Something about the hockey player who’d lost it all makes him think life isn’t all about measured chemical reactions, and sometimes it’s just about the craziness of love.

———-

Unless it’s noted, all books reviewed have been purchased by the reviewer.

Review: Rough (Operation Justice Force #2) by Reece Knightley

Rating: 4🌈

I throughly enjoyed Lethal, the first book in this series. It had a sweet twist as far as the main characters, which directly affected their dynamics and relationship.

It was also my introduction to this world of undercover ops, twin semiautonomous agencies, and their operatives who all seem to have a sort of connection between themselves.

The operatives are all ex-professional military personnel, fierce , intelligent and highly effective in their areas of expertise.

Pegasus, the agency here is more undercover and newly established.

That’s the background. Gage and Mason Taylor are our main characters and POVs in Rough. We watched them bicker and circle each other in Lethal, their chemistry obvious. It’s a opposites attract story.

Mason Taylor is old rich money. He’s a known entity and that’s been used as part of his cover in the past. Gage’s past, other than career, isn’t as clear.

This is one of my issues with the series that starts with this story. I’ll table it for now.

Knightley does a excellent job creating interesting, connectable characters, outfitting them with emotionally laden issues, and then pulling it altogether in a fast-paced , suspenseful espionage thriller.

Gage’s family issues are heartbreaking and the character that acts as a bridge to bring them into Mason’s home is everything.

But this is where the suspension of belief sets in. Pegasus is a semiautonomous organization. High security with all that entails. Including high security clearances. Background checks on every operative to ensure they don’t have anything that would make them a security risk. Like a ex with addiction issues, money problems, and an employee with living quarters in risky area because of money flow issues.

Uh no. Red flags. Nope. Not hired.

And this is a narrative problem that carries over into the following stories.

There’s a few other things that’s problematic but that’s such a glaring example of a major issue that I’ll leave that out there.

Does that balance out a hot romance and terrific characters? Along with a fast paced storyline? Well, if this type of book is your jam, probably so.

Opposites attract, Blk Ops adventure, chemistry and hot men, heartwarming romance.

But a little eye roll as well.

I enjoyed it for what it was. And recommending it for that too.

🔹Operation Justice Force series:

✓ Lethal #1

✓ Rough #2

◦ Honor #3

◦ Rebel #4 – Nov 17, 2022

*there’s connecting series that precedes this, Code of Honor Justice Force series as well as Out for Justice Cobalt Security series.

https://www.goodreads.com › showRough (Operation Justice Force #2) by Reese Knightley – Goodreads

Synopsis:

After circling around each other for so long, are they ready to take it to the next level?

Mason can admit that he’s had the hots for rough and gruff Gage Hillcrest for well over a year now. Only Gage is bossy and overbearing as all hell. Not to mention that Gage is a closed book and Mason doesn’t know anything about the man.

Gage has wanted smart mouthed and sexy, Mason Taylor since he first laid eyes on him. But the two of them are like oil and water. Mason is wild. And well, Gage is not. Mason also has a big house and more money than he’d ever need while Gage is drowning in debt.

When Pegasus is asked to help the local police find a missing undercover officer, the unit leaps in with all hands on deck. Lives collide when they roll out on the mission and Mason finds out that Gage needs aid taking care of his family. Of course, Mason jumps in to help.

As the pair grow closer, life gets more complicated when Gage’s son goes missing. With loved ones in jeopardy, Pegasus will do everything in their power to find the little boy and recover the missing undercover cop before it’s too late.

Because in the end, it’s all about family and taking care of those in need.

———-

Unless it’s noted, all books reviewed have been purchased by the reviewer.

Review: Dusk’s Devotion (Blue Ice Ranch #3) by V.L. Locey

Rating: 4🌈

Dusk’s Devotion is a terrific way to wrap up this western romance trilogy with its roots in another hockey romance series.

Locey ties up all loose storylines and manages to end the nasty ongoing feud that’s been a persistent flashpoint point of so many troubling events between the two major neighboring ranchers.

Told from one point of view, that of Kyle Abbott, long time ranchhand/irrigator and well established character from the preceding books.

It seems to be winter, the prodigious amounts of snow falling is about right for a Wyoming winter, especially around the Tetons. And the storm that blew in on Kyle as he went out to the furthest part of Blue Ice Ranch to feed and water the herd of cows pastured out that way until they could be brought in for calving and market.

I got into this section of the story. I love the Tetons, have ridden out there, and find its beauty beyond compare. Whatever the season. But to stay in Wyoming and be someone who has to work outside during the winter takes a certain fortitude. And love for the land which Locey captures very well.

It’s out at this remote cabin where Kyle’s staying, that as a blizzard arrives, so does a visitor.

What a fantastic idea and dramatic element!

It has so many different aspects to the idea of this entrance and it’s ramifications.

Shep McCrary comes from that despicable neighboring family of ranchers known for their bigotry, racism, homophobia, and actual crimes committed against the local indigenous peoples.

He’s not one readers are immediately going to get involved with, unless the conditions are right.

Well the conditions are right.

Although it takes a minute, Shep and his Dun stallion invade Kyle’s cabin, and then the blizzard keeps them all there.

I wish we actually had more of their developing relationship during the time they had alone. Instead we get a good start, then told of the passing of time, boom , someone is knocking on the cabin door with food and times up.

What should have been drawn out and intimate moments is over too soon imo.

Understandable, as there’s a bunch more exposition to get through.

It’s back at the ranch. Where multiple characters are processing feelings about seeing a hated McCrary in their midst. There’s also some sort of minimal communication about a future between Kyle and Shep because of family issues.

No spoilers.

And then there’s still major thefts going on to be solved as well as past enormous ones regarding the dinosaur digs to uncover.

So that’s quite a few storylines to process and then resolve.

Locey does, everything gets a investigation, there’s a huge dramatic development that’s potentially devastating, and a final expose’ that solves everything.

I only wish that ending and the culprits had felt more fleshed out , and believable. Not the rationale but the people. They felt too one dimensional to care about.

That’s a bit of a shame because the story is well done . It just has a lot of work to carry as the last book in the trilogy. I loved the romance! I just wish that had been given more focus.

If you love contemporary romance with a cowboy twist, this is a terrific series. Put it on your TBR list!

Blue Ice Ranch (previously named Prairie Smoke Ranch series)

✓ Dawn’s Desire #1

✓ Twilights Touch #2

✓ Dusk’s Devotion #3

ALL BUY LINKS

https://www.goodreads.com › showDusk’s Devotion (Blue Ice Ranch #3) by V.L. Locey – Goodreads

Synopsis:

Can love warm the hearts of two enemies facing the wrath of a Wyoming winter storm?

Kyle Abbott is slowly discovering that being midway through his thirties and being married to your job isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. There has to be more to life than random hookups, horses, and cattle. If only he could find a person who excites and ignites his passions like everyone else has at Blue Ice Ranch, he’d be a happy man. He hopes. Confused about his life, he volunteers to spend a month out with the cattle to sort through his bewilderment. Knowing there’s a blizzard on the horizon, Kyle sets out fully prepared and ready for anything.

Anything except the unexpected arrival of rival rancher Shep McCrary. When the half-frozen man shows up at the remote cabin where Kyle has hunkered down with the herd, his conscience demands for him to allow Shep to come inside. Offering food and warmth to another human being is the least he can do, right? Even if the man is a swaggering, hateful jerk who’s far too pretty for his own good and knows it. When the two are forced to spend time together, Kyle begins to see that there is more to Shep than he ever imagined. He might actually kind of like the pompous creep at times. Whoever said there was a fine line between love and hate sure knew what they were talking about…

Dusk’s Devotion is the final book in the Blue Ice MM contemporary western romance trilogy with enemies-to-lovers, a blizzard, lots of forced proximity, family dynamics, suspense, a mystery solved, and a happy ever after.

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Unless it’s noted, all books reviewed have been purchased by the reviewer

Review: Broken In by B.A. Tortuga

Rating: 5🌈

Broken In, B.A. Tortuga’s new release , is definitely my favorite of all her most recent stories.

It’s got all the elements I expect from a B.A. Tortuga tale, but elevated into well developed, beautifully defined book, where every aspect of the story and all the characters damaged past histories flow smoothly into a believable reunion and grounded heartfelt loving future.

The start doesn’t reflect the depth the story and characters will achieve as the story unfolds. First it’s a bit of the men’s combined past, their failure as Greyson Hayden is asked to leave his home and his lover of many years due to his alcoholism. Kyler Lassiter has packed up Greyson’s bags and told him to get help, get sober. Because he doesn’t love Kyler enough to do it together.

It’s a heartbreaking scene for all it’s shortness.

Fast forward to a successful now sober Greyson Hayden who’s returning to the small town he left as a drunk and the ex who asked him to leave.

Tortuga doesn’t shy away from the very human mixed bag of emotions Hayden is bringing with him to town. Tortuga writes believable people, and that means that they come with feelings and thoughts that aren’t always very admirable.

It’s all Greyson to begin with in the narrative. He’s been through the program, he’s got a sponsor he’s working with (we meet him later), he’s realistic about being a alcoholic. But he’s also someone who’s still hurting over the past. Right or wrong.

And just when the reader wants to give him a kick in the conscience about who’s to blame for his actions, Greyson himself gives himself a mental talking to, and corrects course.

Because he’s become a responsible adult. He’s grown up. And just like that , human foibles and all, you are in this man’s corner.

Which is exactly what the story and character needs when the reunion happens.

I won’t spoil Kyler Lassiter for you and his part of the story. It’s huge. It’s so emotional. It’s also realistic in keeping with the character and the setting. But how I love that man. He might be one of Tortuga’s finest characters.

I’ll leave it at that.

Showcased here at the highest level are the following elements:

⁃ The author’s ability to fully explore with grace and sensitivity important topics such as alcoholism and disabilities within the framework of her characters.

⁃ Tortuga’s regional knowledge of the land and culture to enrich the story and characters by creating a foundation so real it’s never in doubt.

⁃ This extended to the love of horses as well as bulls here. The horses were a living, breathing part of this book. I felt them as much as the people. Same went for Snow.

⁃ Food. Enchiladas, breakfast burritos, stuffed sopapillas, tacos, “Christmas flat enchiladas with an egg”, stuffed sopapilla with ground beef, guac, and Christmas”, and just like that my mouth is watering and I need to have a seat in that restaurant with them! Then honey and fried bread. Hmmmm.

⁃ Tortuga’s cellular level talent with colloquialisms. There’s the familiar Lord have mercy and God help me, but also the perfect

“Pie crust promises.”

Broken In by BA Tortuga

If that doesn’t describe a promise that’s temporary I don’t know what does.

I found a new one here, asking for Christmas as in:

““Do you want green, red, or Christmas?” “Christmas, please.” Ky beamed at him. “I love both types of chile.””

— Broken In by BA Tortuga

Again, don’t you just want to go ask for some of whatever they are having just to say that?

The author’s ability to craft dialogue that’s grounded in the region, as well as the people is outstanding. It contributes to pulling us into their lives, the universe, and all the emotions playing out in the situations they find themselves in.

One last thing. The realism as it pertains to the medical aspects of this story. That’s a raw deal for so many people who live in area like the ranches here where care is so spread out that what’s offered is almost nonexistent. It’s a reality faced here inside the story and for many in real life.

Combined with all the other elements here, it makes Broken In by BA Tortuga one of the most amazing contemporary romances I’ve read lately.

I’m highly recommending this. It went very quickly, including that wonderful epilogue.

Add this to your list of books to read!

https://www.goodreads.com › showBroken In by B.A. Tortuga – Goodreads

Greyson Hayden wants to prove to his ex that he’s made it. He’s a successful stock contractor with a couple of million dollar bulls, a ranch owner with more acres than he can count, and he stopped drinking when Kyler kicked him out. He’s had a lot to prove, but now he’s back in town to show Kyler that he has. And maybe rub it in.

The hardest thing Kyler Lassiter ever did was let Greyson go, and he’s lost a lot in his life, right up to his legs in a terrible accident. He’s willing to let Greyson one up him if it makes the man feel better, but when fate throws them together again in the most bizarre way, Ky isn’t sure he’ll survive it, or having to lose Greyson again when it’s all said and done.
Can these two hardheaded cowboys learn to forgive each other, and themselves in time to find something lasting, or are they more broken than broken in?

This is a MM cowboy romance with tough love, tough luck, and lots of learning to be something new.

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Unless it’s noted, all books reviewed have been purchased by the reviewer

Review: Chef Vs Chef (Sizzle in the Kitchen #2) by M.J. O’Shea

Rating: 2.5🌈

Chef Vs Chef is the second of the four book Sizzle in the Kitchen series by M.J. O’Shea and it’s the one I’m stopping on.

Honestly I’m dumbfounded by this book. All the characters and elements I admired and found charming in the first book, which set the foundation for the series,have been deconstructed to fit a new narrative path for this and the following novels.

I see the author’s rationale for this. It’s the only way to make the other plots and characters work now. But it changes the person I loved the most, at his most fundamental level.

That’s Peter Baldwin Powell.

When we left him. And throughout Chef in the Wild, he was done. All Peter wanted was to cook, go home, get involved once again with his family’s lives, have his restaurant.

“”I don’t want to be somewhere high pressure again. I don’t want to have to care about Michelin stars or shaking hands with celebrities, but I miss cooking for people.””

— Chef in the Wild: Sizzle in the Kitchen Book One by M.J. O’Shea

There’s quotes after quotes to the same depth of feelings.

Here? Peter’s turns his beloved now successful Hearth&Oak restaurant in Montpelier, Vermont, over to be run by others. Why? He’s become a TV Food Network Celebrity Chef filming a TV show back in NYC, and more.

He’s the opposite of the man we saw at the end of Chef in the Wild. Content, home. With family and a new love at his side, every bit a man fulfilled and passionate again.

While you can connect with the men, Peter, Murphy, and Bobby, his former sui chef now almost a partner, a threefold force in the Hearth&Oak kitchen and restaurant, that strength is quickly lost in the story.

Murphy and Peter leave to NYC and TV, while a shaken Bobby remains behind to deal with a badly handed decision to bring in another chef to fill the void.

Issues here immediately:

1. Bobby is a close knit friend and part of the trifecta that runs the restaurant. But he’s not involved in the decision process or Informed that another is coming into the management?

This again seems to be storytelling by drama lottery. It happens throughout this book and the next which I just stopped at partway. It’s as though a drama was needed at this point in the story, so regardless of whatever went on before, a new narrative was created to fit the picture.

All of a sudden, Peter’s a different type of careless personality, the type to hurt his friends. He will change again with regard to a “old enemy “.

Continuity has little impact here.

Unless it’s the author’s fondness for characters that are unable to communicate and run constantly from any conflict.

That was Murphy in book 1. It’s Cal here.

That’s a dynamic O’Shea’s couples follow in the two books I’ve read in this series . One’s a steady , established personality, the other someone who uses their past history as an excuse not to communicate and to run from the relationship at each moment possible.

Then of course come back and be immediately forgiven.

With little discussion.

I like Bobby. But there’s very little building here when it comes to a relationship to make the reader care about them and their future. Especially Cal.

And the manner in which he returned and who he works for. Nothing made sense except the author needed it that way for the next even more unreadable and unrealistic novel.

These are supposed to be contemporary romance not fantasy. Narratively speaking, things should at least make sense, have some exposition, and a little character depth.

And without deconstructing a previous story to get it.

“Baldwin didn’t know how to say that when he pictured his restaurant, it wasn’t in New York. Not anymore. He didn’t see flashing lights and packed houses. He saw something a lot more laid back and gentle. In the country, maybe. Or, at home.

He’d been daydreaming about it more and more–a small town restaurant, touring farms and working with local producers. He’d imagined waking up every day with Murph, creating new dishes with Murph and Bobby… watching his nieces grow up from a few blocks away instead of hundreds of miles.”

— Chef in the Wild: Sizzle in the Kitchen Book One by M.J. O’Shea

That’s the character and book I remembered and the one that’s vanished from the series here.

I think I’m going too.

If you’re a fan of this author, then pick it up and decide for yourself. As I said, I’m stopping here.

Sizzling in the Kitchen:

✓ Chef in the Wild #1

✓ Chef Vs Chef #2

◦ Chef On Top #3

◦ Chef In Love #4

https://www.goodreads.com › showChef vs Chef (Sizzling in the Kitchen, #2) by M.J. O’Shea – Goodreads

Synopsis:

They say oil and water don’t mix.. with these two it’s more like oil and a blow torch.

Bobby Diaz has worked his whole life to get where he is – running a restaurant with his two closest friends, no boss, no stress. When his best friend Baldwin gets the opportunity of a lifetime, he asks Bobby to take over the restaurant while he’s gone. Bobby can’t wait to see if he has what it takes to do it on his own.That is until Baldwin tells Bobby his cousin Cal is coming to help run Hearth&Oak.

Awesome.

Bobby and Cal don’t exactly hit it off—to put it lightly. Bobby resents getting Cal dumped in his lap. Cal doesn’t appreciate Bobby’s frosty attitude. They’re stuck together day and night, and their chemistry is undeniable… but will it be sweet summer love or a case of too many chefs in the kitchen?

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Unless it’s noted, all books reviewed have been purchased by the reviewer.