Tag: Love Lane Books

On Tour with Sue Brown and The Last Wolf (book tour and contest)

The Last Wolf Banner

Get a closer look at Sue Brown’s latest story and new series from Love Lane Books!   Check out that gorgeous cover, read the excerpt, and don’t forget to enter the contest at the end of the post!  Happy Reading! 

 

The Last Wolf 400x600Title – The Last Wolf (Sapphire Ranch Wolves – #1) by Sue Brown
Publisher:  Love Lane Books
Cover Artist:  Meredith Russell

Sales Link:  Love Lane Books

Blurb for The Last Wolf:

The only good predator is a dead one, as far as Joe Lowther is concerned.

That is until the day he shoots a wolf, only to watch the animal turn into a naked Callum Pope. Cal is being hunted by a group of humans who eradicate shifter packs for sport.

Joe makes a decision to help Cal and discovers a deeper connection with the young shifter. One which he’d like to explore. If they live that long.

The Last Wolf (Sapphire Ranch Wolves #1) Excerpt

Joe had seen the wolf for the first time the previous night, a fleeting glimpse of glowing eyes as it tracked a coyote across the paddocks of Sapphire Ranch. He’d been convinced his eyes were deceiving him because he knew there were no wolves in Texas.

“You sure it was a wolf? Are you sure it wasn’t a coyote? What did he look like?” Like all ranchers, his daddy hated predators, but he was peculiarly tenderhearted about wolves. Joe didn’t have the same warm fuzzy feelings. For him, the only good predator was a dead one.

“Four paws, big ears, long fangs. What do you think it looked like?” At his father’s scowl, Joe quit the snark. “I hope I’m mistaken, because if not, the next time I meet it will be at the end of my shotgun.” His father looked upset and Joe cursed himself for mentioning it. “I’ll deal with it.”

“I hope you’re wrong,” his daddy said, shifting restlessly against his pillows. He winced, the lines deepening in his face.

Author Bio:

Sue Brown is owned by her dog and two children. When she isn’t following their orders, she be found haunting coffee shops to feed her coffee addiction. She spends hours people watching instead of typing. She feeds the plot bunnies, not the word count.

Sue discovered M/M erotica at the time she woke up to find two men kissing on her favorite television series. The series was boring; the kissing was not. She may be late to the party, but she’s made up for it since, writing fan fiction until she was brave enough to venture out into the world of original fiction.

Connect with Sue

 

Competition:

The contest is for $15 ARe/Amazon gift card, plus two other prizes of a free ebook from Love Lane.  Must be 18 years of age or older to enter.  Please use the Rafflecopter link provided to enter and for additional contest details.

Review: One Night by R.J. Scott

Rating: 4 stars out of 5

One Night coverMicah Adamson is the owner of a vineyard in Rochester NY.  Between it and his close knit family, he has had little time to find the partner he knows is out there for him. Forced by his family to take a vacation, Micah attends a wine festival in Santa Monica, seven nights in a beautiful hotel on the beach.  Micah expects to make some contacts and do some business.  What he doesn’t expect is to meet the man he has been waiting for….

Liam Wade is s rich, successful lawyer.  Scion of a wealthy family, he is expected to work for his father’s law office and conform to his family’s expectations.  But Liam is also a father to a young daughter he loves.  To do what he thinks will give her a family he has  become engaged to a woman his family approves of and has close business ties with.  And while he likes Leigh, he doesn’t love her.  Plus he is gay.  Now Liam has taken a week off to evaluate his wedding and his life.

A chance encounter on the beach brings these two men together for a night of passion and a morning after of uncertainty and questions.  Micah would like to pursue a relationship but Liam is struggling with his duties, responsibilities and commitments that he hasn’t told Micah about.  Can one night end up changing two lives forever?

Can one moment lead to your forever happiness?  That’s the question that RJ Scott tries to answer in One Night, her recently released novella.

I found One Night  an enjoyable read for many reasons.  The first is RJ Scott’s ability to present the reader with realistic characters quickly and establish a connection to them and whatever situation they find on the road to romance and HEA.  Starting with Micah and his New York vineyard, we got an immediate feel for his close knit family and Micah’s “Type A personality” that causes him to direct all his energies towards the business and family.  Only the persistence of his sisters persuades Micah to take that long overdue vacation, and even then, its to a wine festival in Santa Monica.  Of the two characters, Micah is easily to one most people will relate to and understand.  He wants a lover and partner but just hasn’t found the right man yet.  Oh how we get that.

Liam Wade is more problematic.  His best friend got pregnant and Liam married her to give the child a loving family.  But her death forced Liam to return to his wealthy parent’s home to take up his father’s expected law office responsibilities and duties in order to provide his daughter with stability and …well stability.  Liam doesn’t need the money.  So why return to a job and family obligations he doesn’t want?  Especially when it means a return to the closet?  I’m not sure Scott ever made her case for Liam’s acquiescing to his father’s demands so quickly and definitively, especially when it meant marrying a close business associate’s daughter.   If Liam is submissive by nature, we don’t get that.  Easy going and young?  Perhaps.  I just wish that RJ Scott had delivered a little more of Liam’s personality so we could get a grip on what drove him to accept the situation that he was in when he arrived in Santa Monica.

There are the small wonderful touches here that I have come to expect from this author.  A moment when Liam looks at an “all too perfect” posed picture of his daughter that his fiance arranged and realizes that it’s the messy, carefree little girl he misses.  An insightful and beautifully real instant in time, one that most parents will recognize.  RJ Scott’s ability to deliver scenes like is just one of the many reasons I love her stories.

Then there are the funny “wine tasting” questions and the lovely vineyard setting in New York, each comes across as authentically as possible, telegraphing the author’s knowledge, research, and depth given to this story and plot.

There isn’t any true or instant love here but the possibility of one as well as a great future together for them both.  I appreciated that the author didn’t have Liam just automatically follow Micah after the events of the festival.  That was especially reassuring, considering we need to see him as a responsible and caring parent.

So what was missing?  The romance.  I wish that we had been given more time, more interaction between these characters to allow us to connect with their growing love for each other and HEA that was to follow. Perhaps even more scenes with Micah, Liam and his daughter to make the idea of them as a family a reality to us instead of a given.  I wanted the “what happens next” and didn’t exactly get that full picture.  Had this story been enlarged even further then I am sure this issue would have been resolved.

That said, I did enjoy One Night.  I connected with the men, especially Micah.  I loved the wine festival and the vineyard, wine snobs, and all.  I loved the promise of a HEA and a family for that little girl in need of less structure and more love.  I know that this tale is a restructuring of a previous story but I would love for RJ Scott to revisit this universe and let us know how this little family and the vineyards are flourishing.  Until then, I will be on the lookout for the next Heroes or Sanctuary story or whatever else this wonderful and prolific author has in store for us all.

Cover design: Meredith Russell. Lovely.  I liked the pier at Santa Monica and the small wine glass. I only wish the model for Micah would have been a little less scruffy, older and more professional.  Picky, picky, picky….

Buy Links:               Love Lane Books               Amazon                   ARe

Book Details:

This title was previously available with Silver Publishing. It has been re-edited and approximately 1,800 words added as an epilogue

2nd edition
Published June 6th 2013 by Love Lane Books (first published July 8th 2011)
charactersLiam Wade, Micah Anderson
settingSanta Monica, California (United States)
Rochester, New York (United States)

Review: Texas Family (Texas #4) by R.J. Scott

Rating 4.5 stars out of 5

Texas FamilyJack and Riley Campbell-Hayes have been through so many things together, and overcome it all to get to the place where they are today, a happy couple with an adorable daughter and a wonderful extended family. Each hurdle in their path, whether it was their disastrous start to their relationship, fires, gunshots, and even the deepest of family betrayals haven’t kept them from each other or hurt their deep bond.

Now its time for another change, another forward step that will enlarge their family…..that of having another child.  This time, the child will have Jack’s DNA and their chosen path is surrogacy. But before Jack and Riley know it, their plans for just one child are being hijacked, first by their  surrogates pregnancy and then by a young four year old boy, Max, in foster care As Jack and Riley quickly find out, nothing is ever easy, especially in the state of Texas where gay couples, even rich ones, have a tougher path as families.

I have followed the romance of Jack and Riley through three books now and still can’t get enough.  Starting with The Heart of Texas (Texas, #1) where the men meet and marry under the worst possible circumstances through Texas Winter where Riley learned about his daughter and the devious workings of his family to Texas Heat (Texas, #3) and the expansion of the Double D, I have felt an intimate connection to these men and their future together as a couple and family.  So I was thrilled to see Texas Family released so I could pick up where we had left off before, with the men wanting to have another child, this time Jack’s.

But the road to having children is never an easy one, especially for gay couples. Then locate the gay couple in question in the not so gay friendly state of Texas and the obstacles in front of them increase exponentially.  R.J.Scott makes sure that Jack and Riley’s pursuit of a surrogate to have their child is realistically described to her credit.  This is not an easy process in any respect.  From the mens thoughts on whose sperm to donate to the woman who will carry their child, it is a complicated procedure, fraught with the possibility of rejection, pain, and the right of the birth mother to refuse to turn over the child when it is born.   The author brings us right into couples journey to fatherhood, making all the many emotions and complex decisions seem as though they could be ours.  As Riley and Jack questioned the two surrogates as to why they would agree to such an emotional and physically draining procedure, they asked the same questions that were in my mind as well.  It all felt authentic.  It was stressful, hopeful, and ultimately one of the most rewarding experiences for them all.  Trust me, by the time everyone ends up in the maternity room, your eyes will be filled with tears of joy along with everyone present.

But if that is not enough, Scott adds yet another dimension to this picture of Jack and Riley’s expanding family.  The couple that is the surrogate and her husband are also foster parents.  In their care is a very special child named Max.  I won’t spoil either his introduction or his history but needless to say that Max will grab onto your heart just as quickly as he does Jack and Riley’s.  So adoption and its complications enters into the story, again not an easy path for a gay couple, not only in Texas but elsewhere.

In fact Texas Family is about more than just Jack and Riley and their efforts to expand their family.  It’s about their extended families efforts to have children or to move forward in their troubled relationships.  Its about family in every aspect you can think of.  Its Jack’s sister whose fragile health complicates her dreams for another child. Its Riley’s sister’s problems with the man she loves , one Riley doesn’t approve of. Its their mothers, step fathers, and co workers. Its even the new worker newly arrived with problems of his own.

If I have a quibble, its that the author has packed so much into one story that it threatens to burst at the seams. Just the introduction of a new thread about the latest hire, a young man with a troubled past, had me wanting more yet wishing she had postponed that element in favor of a last minute look at Jack, Riley and their new family. I ended up wanting more of everything and everyone. The Double D Rance is a huge canvas and R.J. Scott is taking advantage of every square inch to bring us a multigenerational family saga, complete with drama, laughter, and romance.

I know the author has at least two more books planned.  I hope that the Texas saga will continue on much, much longer.  I love this series and highly recommend both the series and this book.  If you are new to the Texas saga, go back to the beginning and see how it all starts.  Otherwise, some of the relationships and past events will make little sense to a reader picking up this book to read as a standalone story.

Here are the stories in the Texas series in the order they were written and should be read:

The Heart of Texas (Texas, #1)
Texas Winter (Texas, #2)
Texas Heat (Texas, #3)
Texas Family (Texas, #4)
Texas Christmas (coming soon)

Cover by Meredith Russell.  The cover is adorable and perfect in every way.

Book Details:

ebook, 186 pages
Published October 15th 2013 by Love Lane Books
edition language English
series Texas

Review of The Christmas Throwaway by RJ Scott

 

Rating: 4.75 stars

The Christmas ThrowawayBen Hamilton is a rookie cop and that means he takes all the shifts the more experienced cops don’t want.  And that is how he finds himself outside St. Margeret’s in a blizzard on Christmas Eve looking at the frozen figure curled up on the bench.  The young man is shivering in his sleep and the snow is quickly blanketing him, soon it will be impossible to tell there is someone there.  It takes Ben several tries before he is able to rouse the young man and ask him his name.

Zachary Weston is only seventeen when his father throws him out of the house for being gay.  Left without any money, clothes or a place to go, Zachary finds himself at the end of his rope, on a bench in front of an old church in town, falling asleep in the cold and snow.  Then a cop named Ben wakes him up, and ends up taking him home to the house he shares with his mother.  Together they show Zachary the true meaning of love and family. This will be the Christmas that changes everything, and not just for Zachary.

“Hey! You can’t sleep here.” That sentence opens RJ Scott’s The Christmas Throwaway, a book I first read last year at Christmas.  It quickly became one of my favorite holiday stories.  The story of Zachary Weston, a teenager abandoned by his family, at the worst time of year in the worst weather imaginable pulled at my heartstrings from the very beginning.  Zachary has given up and is quietly letting the cold and snow pull him under.  But Ben Hamilton is an earnest, kind young man, who is horrified to find Zachary close to death in front of St. Margeret’s.  Well aware that he should be turning Zachary over to child services, instead Ben takes him home to his mom at his family’s house and changes all their lives from that moment on.

Although the story starts out with Zachary as a seventeen year old boy, Zachary is of legal age when he and Ben start their relationship, a element that looms large in Ben’s mind when he realizes he not only likes Zachary as a friend but is attracted to him as well.  RJ Scott gives us wonderful characters to believe in and love throughout this story, not only Ben and Zachary but Ben’s mother who grows to love the “Christmas throwaway” like her own son, Elles Belles Ben’s sister, Mark his best friend and so many others.  But your focus will remain on Zachary and Ben, especially Zachary and his plight as a child thrown away because of his sexuality, a grim statistic across America.  Zachary is saved, but the story makes clear he is one of the fortunate few and that there are so many others out there needing help and support.

I just loved Zachary and Ben and their slow climb into a lovely relationship.  It’s funny, and heartbreaking and always feels so real as they deal with problems that arise, miscommunications and misperceptions by both of them.  And there is Rebecca, the sister Zachary left behind who will supply her own share of trauma and angst to this story.  But this is a Christmas tale and it ends as it started, on the bench in front of St. Margeret’s on Christmas Eve.  From the first Eve to the last, RJ Scott’s shares with us a story of love at Christmas time that will stay with you throughout the year.  It has become a favorite of mine.  I think you will find it becomes yours as well.

At this time of year, the  GLBTQ shelters are over flowing.  If you can donate even a little at this time of year, it would be greatly appreciated.  Here are some shelters in need:

New York City, NY:   The Ali Forney Center for LGBTQ Homeless Youth.

Chicago, IL  The GLBT Chicago Shelter

National Coalition for the Homeless, write them at info@nationalhomeless.org

Covenant House, Washington, DC

 

Cover: That cover by Reese Dante gives me the chills, so perfect in its depiction of characters and time of year.

Review: New York Christmas by R.J. Scott

Rating: 4.5 stars

New York ChristmasDaniel Bailey and Christian Matthews went to the same university and Daniel was even in the same English class where Chris was the T.A.  But that is where the similarities  between them ended.  Daniel was gorgeous, rich, and a bit of a slut.  Everything came easy to him, including a trust fund at the age of twenty five and a job guaranteed at his father’s firm.  So Chris never expected to see Daniel again once Chris graduated, but life has a funny way of messing with your expectations.

Now years later, Chris is reeling from a series of blows life has dealt him.  Chris had graduated and become a teacher, the one thing he had always wanted to be and was great at.  But then his boyfriend, a fellow teacher at the private school they worked for betrayed Chris and the fallout cost Chris his job as well as ruined his reputation.  The only thing that saved Chris was his best friend offering him work at her bakery. That’s where Daniel Bailey walked back into Chris’ life, not as the rich man Chris expected Daniel to turn out to be, but as a police officer who very much wants Chris in his life.  Christmas is a season of miracles, and if it can bring Daniel back to Chris, maybe everything else can be made right too.  Everything seems possible in a New York Christmas.

RJ Scott broke out the carols, the mistletoe,  and the wassail because this story is permeated with the glow and good tidings of a wonderful Christmas tale.  I have certain expectations of a holiday story.  It must make me feel good, leave me smiling in joy for the characters who have found love in each other and the season.  I love to have some snow (although not necessary), some good deeds, and a couple or couples well on their way to happily ever after.  With New York Christmas I get all that and more.

I love RJ Scott’s characters and here she delivers two more wonderful men, reunited after years apart.   Time has changed both of them, especially one who seemed destined for a life lived shallowly and at the expense of others.  But Daniel surprises Chris and the readers with his depth, charm and commitment, to his job and to Chris as well.  I loved Daniel.  Chris is another lovely man who just happens to need a Christmas miracle.  Fired from the job he loved because of the cowardice of a man he thought cared for him, Chris was almost homeless if it were not for his friend who gave him a job, filling in for a worker out on pregnancy leave.  Chris is full of pain over the loss of a career as a teacher and lonely.  It is so easy to empathize with this man, so full of goodness that has been trampled on by others.  So when Daniel comes back into his life wearing the very uniform that is an emblem of safety, bravery, and wellbeing, you just know that Chris’ life has changed finally for the better.  And it has much to the delight of the reader as their relationship unfolds over the next 79 pages.

At the end, there are good tidings, holiday cheer and a couple deeply in love.  And that’s how I like my holiday stories and that’s why I loved New York Christmas.

Cover design by BitterGrace Art.  I loved this cover, the men are adorable and perfect models for Daniel and Chris.

Available through RJ Scott’s website.

Review: The Journal of Sanctuary One (Sanctuary #6) by RJ Scott

Rating: 5 stars

The Journal of Sanctuary OneJake Callahan was looking forward to spending time with his brother, Hayden and his boyfriend up at their cabin for Christmas.  It had been an extremely tough year for everyone who worked at Sanctuary, the secret organization devoted to keeping witnesses  and other “vulnerables” safe when the alphabet organizations (CIA, FBI etc) couldn’t.  Sanctuary operatives were still trying to close down the Bullen case as there were files still to be encrypted and a few criminals left to round up.  Still, this time of year was special to Jake and he needs it now more than ever as the betrayal by exFBI agent Sean Hanson was as painful as the day he first learned that Sean was working for Bullen. Now all Jake wants is some peace and time with his brother but Mother Nature is making that impossible.  The northeast corridor is being blanketed by a snow storm, Hayden is stuck in New York  City with his boyfriend Beckett. and Jake is facing Christmas alone at the cabin.  That is until a bloody and injured Sean Hansen appears on his doorstep and faints into the snow.

Sean Hansen is being hunted and by several factions, all of whom want him dead.  The gunshot wound in his side attests to that and between the pain and the snow Sean is being to despair of ever making his destination.  The cabin called Sanctuary One was no longer used for official business but Sean figured it would just be off the grid enough for him to be safe there until the last of his mission is finished. And then all Sean wants to do is find the man he had started to love, so he could explain and apologize. The last person he expects to see just before passing out from pain and blood loss is Jake Callahan, the man he has been thinking about.

As the snow storm turns into a blizzard that seals the cabin off from everyone around them, Jake and Sean are left to deal with their memories, emotions and the fact that the killers are still on Sean’s trail, putting them  both in danger.

RJ Scott’s Sanctuary series remains one of my top series for 2012 and this latest edition just cements it firmly in place.  The Journal of Sanctuary One picks up where Full Circle (Sanctuary #5) left off, with members of the Bullen family in custody, the Bullen case coming to a close and Sean Hansen escaping from a prison van and on the loose.  Now only a short time later, all the operatives are in recovery mode in one way or another. Manny and Josh (Full Circle) are at a safe house in Canada, working on the encryption of the files, Hayden and Beckett are in New York, Dale is waiting for Joseph to come back from a mission and Jake is feeling alone and hurting from Sean’s betrayal. And you are there with him, feeling his pain and loneliness.

And that is one of the real joys of this series. RJ Scott has created a cast of characters, so complex, so real and from a variety of backgrounds that they are memorable from the very start.  In some books and series, I have to think hard to bring up names and associate them with their personas, not so with the Sanctuary series.  Mention Morgan and I can picture him in detail.  Joseph and Dale, two of the hottest characters (Navy Seal and ex Seal) in the series, and I feel as though I know them intimately.  Over the course of the series, we meet one unforgettable character after another and watch as they bond with each other, and find love. And through it all, the thread that ties the books together along with the Sanctuary organization is the Bullen crime family, which extends from Congress to the many family businesses.  The Bullens have destroyed families, tortured and murdered  their way to the accumulation of wealth and power.  And Scott managed to make the investigation as thrilling as her love stories.  Each book moved the investigation forward (and sometimes back, depending upon the double cross) and always a new criminal element presented itself by the end of the book as well as a new couple. How I loved every minute they continued to investigate the Bullen crime family, a most heinous group of thugs and the wild pathways they took to get evidence and witnesses.

And The Journal of Sanctuary One brings the investigation back to its very beginnings,  including something I didn’t see coming and back to Jake Callahan whose father started the Sanctuary organization and who built Sanctuary One.  The author really pulls together all the elements from each book, including some I didn’t realize were important, to finish off the Bullens once and for all.  We get a closer understanding not only of who Jake is, and what has driven him all these years but that of Sean Hansen, an enigma whose story we have been waiting to hear.  RJ Scott has included most of the characters we love from the other stories, even if we only see and hear  them over the phones and Skype.

And there is nothing like a snowbound cabin to bring out the emotional explosions and stress that have been building for these characters and the author delivers the required scenes in painful detail and authentically loud conversations.  Just what you would expect from these men who are so much each others equal in every way, just perfect.

So have we heard the last from Sanctuary and its operatives?  I hope not.  I get the feeling that we will be hearing from Dale and Joseph soon.  Remember Dale was expecting Joseph back from his mission and we never heard that he made it.  Hmmmm….funny that.  It brings me hope that this outstanding series will continue and that I will meet up once more with all my favorite couples as they investigate, hack, protect, and love. So if you haven’t made the acquaintance of Sanctuary and their operatives, start at the beginning with Guarding Morgan and work your way through the stories in the order they were written.  That way you won’t miss a double cross, new witness or new crime and or course, new couple.  You will love them as much as I do.

Sanctuary Series in the order they should be read in order to fully understand the Bullen Family conspiracy and the characters involved:

Guarding Morgan, Sanctuary Series #1 – rating 4.25 stars

The Only Easy Day, Sanctuary Series, #2 – my review here

Face Value, Sanctuary Series #3 – my review here

Still Water, Sanctuary Series #4 – my review here

Full Circle, Sanctuary Series, #5 – my review here

The Journal of Sanctuary One, #6

Buy link here LoveLaneBooks.co.uk

All the Sanctuary books can be bought at the link above.