Review: Light Up the Lamp by Kit Oliver

Rating: 3.75/🌈

“Light Up the Lamp: To score a goal in hockey, and thereby set off the goal lamp behind the net”

— Light Up the Lamp by Kit Oliver

I love hockey romances so to see this story by Kit Oliver was a welcome surprise. It’s a terrific contemporary sports romance and addition to this genre. Oliver clearly knows the sport of hockey and team dynamics, which are displayed throughout the game and novel by the locker room behavior and behind the scenes maneuvering of management and players.

I was uncertain at first by the choice of Gil Roussin, NHL center, of the hockey family of a famed NHL player, as the only narrator. Primarily because Gil is so focused on his career that his perspective and his personality comes through as both narrow and oblivious that it makes him hard to connect with at first.

The man we start to see reflected back at the readers from his family doesn’t match up with the one in Gil’s head. Not the image of the one brother who doesn’t follow the family occupation, or the mother who is reticent about the overbearing idolized hockey father’s role in his son’s life. There’s a disconnect between the way Gil is looking at the way he’s behaving and treating people and the reality of the situation.

And that matters because most readers won’t be down on the side of Gil Roussin. Even when his career seems to be tanking, and he’s sent to the worst team in the NHL.

I have to admit, the descriptions of the Sea Lion’s training facility is everything! From the rust to the puddles and dripping water, I mean , I’d run. It’s a fabulous bit of work by Oliver here, emotionally laying out a team so in financial shambles that its training facilities is an absolute believable nightmare.

And for the first time, maybe the reader starts to feel something for Gil, even with his awful attitude.

Sebastian Martin who we met earlier In Baltimore has his issues as well. Although both men were close friends and more, now there’s a huge gap between them that needs sorting out.

Sebastian isn’t exactly a stellar character, although Oliver tries hard enough to make it work. Communication isn’t great for either man. Not in the past , and apparently not in the present.

Sebastian makes several poor choices when it comes to dealing with Gil as a new player both as his new manager and as his former friend/lover. His refusal to communicate with Gil is as frustrating to read as Gil’s inability to widen his outlook on his team and life.

So Oliver had to work to make this story happen and it does, eventually. Primarily because it starts with Gil finding a new attitude and place with the Sea Lions. Then with Sebastian deciding to invite Gil into his private life and the history of his life after they separated.

Light Up the Lamp by Kit Oliver is a realistic HFN ending, a sweet story that would serve well as the first book in a new series about an upcoming NHL team, the Sea Lions.

As a standalone I feel that the ending is missing another chapter. But as a fan of this genre and hockey, I think Oliver did a good job with giving us a realistic team and characters we come to appreciate. Well worth the read!

Buy Link:

https://www.amazon.com › Light-U…Light Up the Lamp – Oliver, Kit: Books – Amazon.com

Description:

Gil missed his first chance with Sebastian. Now, he has one shot to try again.

Gil Roussin’s goals for his hockey career don’t involve playing for the worst team in the league, so when he’s sent to the San Francisco Sea Lions, Gil will do whatever it takes to get traded.

But the Sea Lion’s coaching staff has other ideas for him, and among them is the last person Gil expected to see again: Sebastian Martin. Once Gil’s childhood best friend, and his first flame, it’s been a decade since Sebastian drifted out of his life. Now, Gil needs to convince his ex-boyfriend and current coach to help him on—and off—the ice.

Can Gil and Sebastian work together to get Gil traded? Or will so much time together rekindle the very relationship Gil has spent years trying to forget?

Light up the Lamp is a steamy, m/m romance novel. If you like the hope of second chances and the joy returned passion, then you’ll love this exciting hockey romance as Gil and Sebastian banter, bicker, and flirt their way back to each other.

Review: Scoring Points (A Lights Out story ) by H.L Day

Rating: 2🌈

“You can’t change what happened. But you can still change what will happen.

⁃ Sebastian Vettel.”

After reading Scoring Points by H.L. Day, my first thoughts were you had one job in this series , that was to write a book about Formula 1 racing and you’ve tossed the memo.

How did one author go so wrong in a multi author series about specific teams with specific drivers racing on certain circuit’s during a specified season and not write about racing?

First by not writing about the drivers themselves or anyone within the pit who’s directly in contact with the drivers and the actual action on the racetrack. By now, we’ve gotten a good idea of the various teams and their drivers, even on a superficial level, from the other books who mention the same races and events, albeit from different perspectives.

That’s been a great aspect of the series and an anticipatory factor in every new release to come.

But H.L. Day, whose works are often in my must rec list, has made some seriously ill conceived choices when it came time to plan out and write their book for this series.

Day chose to write about the team’s principals. What is a team principal?

“In Formula One, the team principal is the person who is in charge of a constructor team [team who builds the cars] and its personnel. They are usually responsible for issuing team orders and making day-to-day decisions. “

And they are extremely well paid for the job. Millions a year in fact. It’s a job that’s incredibly hard to get and harder to keep.

So Day chose to work the story around two competitive principals. That’s fine , except instead of it being a normal or. it’s all on a personal level. It’s nothing to do with racing but hurt feelings stemming from episodes when they raced karts as teenagers.

Not racing but sexuality. This really could be any other kind of book. Day just had to throw in racing stuff. And it shows.

Keep that in mind. After slogging through approximately 45%, I kept wondering why Day had made the barest of efforts at incorporating any racing into the story. Only Kurt Whitford’s character , at least, gets some semblance of showing he’s got a team that’s interested in racing.

Giovanni Rossi, whose team is mentioned extensively in all the other books, can hardly remember he’s got a team because he’s so obsessed with his sex life, past as well as present, and his revenge on Kurt. Believable he’s not, petulant he is, as Yoda would say.

By 50 % , I’m denying myself the pleasure of DNF, and page flipping , hoping for some racing somewhere in this story or anything that would ground it in this series. But no.

It’s a hopeless mess of two grown men in constant emotional turmoil over each other. Men, primarily Gio who is not a likable character, playing petty head games as payback, who in this actual situation would never be risking their teams, their drivers, or the millions and their careers this way.

Maybe another author could make a believable case for this scenario but Day never does.

Day uses tweets with events from other stories to make sure the reader knows this story is still “all about racing” . Such a format can’t replace actual depths of plotting and real characters.

So in the end do I recommend this ? No. Skip it, and read the others. You won’t be missing anything here.

Lights Out:

✓ Team Orders by RJ Scott

✓ Full Throttle by Lisa Henry

✓ Pole Position by Charlie Novak

✓ Scoring Points by HL Day

◦ Black Flagged by Emma Jaye 6/20

◦ Rookie Mistakes by Beth Laycock 6/27/2023

Buy Link:

Scoring Points

Description:

Can two warring team principals in the cutthroat world of F1 ever admit that there’s more to life than scoring points?

On the surface, Kurt Whitford has everything. A successful business. Good looks. Money. A famous popstar girlfriend hanging off his arm. And as the icing on the cake, he’s just been announced as Nebula’s new team principal. The downside? The opposition. It’s seventeen years since Kurt has seen the infuriating and irresistible Gio Rossi, but the man hasn’t changed a bit.

Whatever Kurt Whitford has, Giovanni Rossi can surpass. Well, except for the girlfriend. Despite needing to keep his sexuality on the down low, he’s not that far in the closet. And if Kurt thinks that Gio’s ready to let bygones be bygones, he couldn’t be more wrong. Gio hasn’t forgiven. Or forgotten.

As a long-rooted rivalry kicks off once more and sparks fly both on and off the track, can Gio and Kurt go head-to-head without the media getting wind of their true feelings? Or is their undeniable sexual chemistry about to prove their downfall?

This MM romance from H.L Day features enemies to lovers, opposing teams, secrets that go way back, and suppressed feelings. Set in the high-octane world of Formula 1, it features fast cars, spectacular crashes, heated rivalries, and of course, a HEA.

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

Review: Second Chance at First Love: Prequel to The Storm Boys Series by N. R. Walker

Rating: 4.5 🌈

Second Chance at First Love is N. R. Walker’s prequel to her upcoming series, The Storm Boys. This is a romantic lover’s reunited, second chance at love novella that gives us an enthralling natural experience through the eyes of the characters on their camping/hiking tour across sections of Kakadu National Park. Their guide and tour owner is Paul Morgan, who for the past five years has run a luxury glamping tour business in this park he now calls home.

But it came at a price. The loss of a man he left behind and never stopped loving.

That tormented man, Derek Grimes, appears suddenly , with telescope in hand, as part of his latest small group of campers heading into the bush for the next five days.

Walker’s men are always so real, so quiet, and vulnerable. None as much as Derek Grimes, a man so quiet as to be incommunicative. All his fears, his hopes, Derek keeps buried inside of himself, something that contributed to their failure 5 years ago. His struggles are both valiant and painful to watch.

Around the men are three women we only know just enough about to enjoy their experiences along the trail. But not much else. They are minor supporting roles. Sweet but not very layered.

The major players here are Paul, Derek, and the indescribable beauty of the Park around them. The richness of the landscape and Walker’s ability to make us feel what her characters are feeling is key here.

Absolute wonder.

Towards the end, the epilogue, two more characters are introduced. They are the men of the next series, The Storm Boys. They make quite the entrance!

I can’t wait for that story to be released.

For now, enjoy the remarkable journey home for Paul and Derek, and the beauty that is their section of Kakadu National Park. Tell me if doesn’t make you want to do a little traveling on your own.

I’m highly recommending this book!

Second Chance at First Love: Prequel to The Storm Boys

The Storm Boys:

◦ Outrun The Rain – June 6, 2023

◦ Into The Tempest – June 27, 2023

◦ Touch The Lightning-July 18, 2023

Buy Link:

Amazon.comhttps://www.amazon.com › Second-…Second Chance at First Love: Prequel to The Storm Boys Series eBook : Walker, N.R.

Description:

PREQUEL TO THE STORM BOYS SERIES

Paul Morgan has been running his luxury camping tour business in Kakadu National Park for the last five years. Taking small groups glamping, hiking, climbing, and swimming. It’s been a busy five years, a hard five years, as he tried to forget the man he left behind.

Derek Grimes pushes people away—a self-preservation reflex. Because they can’t break his heart if he breaks theirs first, right? Five years on, lost and lonely, he tracks down the one and only love of his life. Maybe seeing how Paul had moved on will help Derek move on too . . .

Paul can’t believe it when a familiar name pops up on his client list, and Derek can’t believe how good Paul looks, or just how happy living his dream job has made him. The spark between them never waned, but five years on, they’ve learned a few things about themselves and what they want.

They could have everything they ever dreamed of—if they’re prepared to trust each other. Because a second chance at first love comes but once in a lifetime.

Review: The Financier and the Sweetheart (Campo Royale #4) by V.L. Locey

Rating: 5🌈

It’s going to break my heart to say goodbye to the Campo Royale series. It’s turned out to be a moving and entertaining series based around a Wilmington, Delaware hard working drag establishment. We’ve had all types of Queens and romances, from tiny Gigi and her NHL player to aging drag Queen Mother Sitka Patel and young Yampier.

Now at the penultimate story, we have Clarice Patel Coco, manager and performer at the Campo Royale. At the end of the last novel, a long lost and bitterly regretted love had resurfaced from Clarice’s past.

Nathan Abrams met young Leroy Marx on a college summer trip in France. It was incredibly beautiful and intense time when the young men fell deeply in love. But Nathan left, tragedy struck at home and Leroy returned to deal with it.

Locey gives us the innocence of Paris, the brutality of its loss and its significance to make Leroy’s current bitterness and solid stance against Nathan seem rational instead of extreme. When paired with their current monetary circumstances, Leroy scrambling to pay off the debts versus Nathan being wealthy to the point of private planes, the past seems a bigger barrier to overcome.

The realness and depth of energy that Locey has brought to the Campo Royale in every aspect makes it such a compelling stage for the series and romances. With Mother Sitka reigning over the chaos, the Queens backstage fondly quarreling and delivering shade with lines worthy of the best of RuPaul’s Untucked , this is a place you believe in. And love.

So it’s tough that most of the story is necessarily removed from here. It’s as though the author is preparing us to say goodbye .

Leroy, Nathan, and Leroy’s ebullient young sister, Laila (a great character), go on a journey of forgiveness, discovery, and love is so well done. I was deeply impressed with the details of pageantry, the city trips, the raw emotion, and how emotionally committed I was to the project and outcome.

Locey’s story has so many elements and all are fully explored and made real to the extent the reader will believe we’ve traveled around with the people, engaging in conversations, sharing experiences, and growing up with the newly created family.

Honestly, The Financier and the Sweetheart is my favorite of the series. It’s a deeply felt story and beautifully written journey about second chances and personal growth.

Then the letting go and moving forward to a new chapter in life.

There’s one last book to come . That will be a sorrowful read. Until then, I’m highly recommending The Financier and the Sweetheart (Campo Royale #4) by V.L. Locey, a beautiful way to start our goodbyes.

Campo Royale series:

✓ The Viking and the Drag Queen #1

✓ The Batchelor and The Cherry #2

✓ The Barkeep and The Bookseller #3

✓ The Financier and the Sweetheart #4

◦ The Chanteuse and the Bodyguard #5 – TBD release

Amazon.comhttps://www.amazon.com › Financie…The Financier and the Sweetheart (Campo Royale #4) – Kindle edition by Locey, V.L.. …

Description:

Will the love they once shared reignite or will this goodbye truly be the last?

Leroy Marx has been performing as Clarice Patel Coco for years. Ever since that fateful summer when he was a young and foolish man touring Europe before heading to a religious college in the Deep South. That trip proved to be a time of great joy as well as crushing sorrow. He found love on that grand tour in the arms of an arrogant, beautiful young man who was sowing his wild oats amid the lavender fields of France. That great passion was not to last for many reasons, one being the untimely death of Leroy’s parents in a car crash. The same crash that put his twin sister in a wheelchair for life. Leaving that young lover behind, he divided his time between his job and caring for his sibling. Leroy never dreamed that he’d be face-to-face with the man who had won, then trampled his heart all those years ago. The years have been incredibly kind to Nate Abrams but no matter how sweet that voice or how alluring those eyes are, Leroy is not about to offer up his heart again.

Nathan Abrams has it all, or so people say. Nate himself would say that as well and has numerous times. He’s a proud and out gay man who has an uncanny knack for knowing when to buy and when to sell. Anything. Stocks, houses, artwork, bonds. Nate has a keen sense of when to walk and when to hold tight. The only time he’d ever been wrong about his instincts was that glorious summer when he’d been eighteen and had met a reserved sweetheart of a man named Leroy Marx. He’d fallen hard for Leroy, the wild and impetuous headiness of first love overwhelming him. To the point that he’d feared the deep emotions ablaze in his chest. He’d run from that romance and into the arms of countless lovers, but he’d never been able to purge the tender memories of that love from his heart. Now here he was fifteen years older, and it seems none the wiser because he cannot seem to win back the man who has haunted his dreams no matter what he tries. He’s at his wit’s end but is too stubborn to give up and lose Leroy for a second time. Nate is ready to do whatever it takes to fix the biggest mistake of his life if he could just figure out what exactly he has to do and how to go about doing it…

The Financier and the Sweetheart is a second chance romance with a rich banker, a proud and independent queen, a past that both prayed would never be seen or heard from again, go-go boots, world travel, loving sisters, bell bottom love, and a glitteringly gorgeous happy ending.

Review: Confetti Hearts (Confetti Hitched, #1) by Lily Morton

Rating:3🌈

I have been anticipating this book since I encountered Joe Bagshaw in Vow Maker, where he acted as the wedding planner to Gabe and Dylan. It was a hilarious and memorable introduction. And made all the readers want more, especially his painful romantic history.

Morton reveals Joe’s love life and tale of marriage woe between scenes of weddings that Joe’s firm is handling, past and present. This format works in some respects to help the story and not in others.

By breaking down the story into different timelines, a wedding here that begins the relationship, a wedding that sees the men meet up again, and so on to weddings three and four, the reader gets a wonderful feel for the strong amazing personality that is Joe Bagshaw. Quick witted, kind, thoughtful, well organized, and extremely intelligent. He’s exactly who you’d want to plan your wedding. Or anything else for that matter. We connect with Joe immediately.

The other man in this unusual relationship that they aren’t calling a relationship? That would be forensic accountant Lachlan Moore. Older, self possessed, and assured of himself and his status quo, personally and professionally , he’s not the immediate choice we’d expect for Joe. He’s not a bad person but from the early stages, Morton doesn’t give the reader (or Joe) enough reason to believe he is the best person for that amazing being we love.

In my opinion, this is where the issues with the format overlap into character and relationship development. And not for the first time in a Lily Morton story.

Lachlan falls into that category of main protagonists that are emotionally unavailable to the other more engaging and lovable men in their lives. For the majority of the story, it’s Joe who’s the narrator. Through Joe’s thoughts and feelings, we watch as Lachlan creates a “on my terms only “ scenario for them where not even the term date can be used. When they marry, he then leaves Joe to be abused by a housekeeper, his friends, and his PA. Even a house. We, Joe’s audience , along with Joe’s friends , find this situation naturally appalling.

Morton has created a one-sided emotional connection with the couple through Joe with her readers. Only later does Lachlan get his perspective voiced. By then it’s almost too late.

The author’s plan to right this one sidedness starts at a wedding in Scotland. There it’s a strictly 2 person POV. So Lachlan becomes the fully fleshed out character he should have been all along. However, I’m not sure he’s still a great person.

Communication, or it’s lack of, is key here between the two people. Neither was able to talk to the other person about their feelings or the fact they were upset until now. That’s not addressed either. A secret from Lachlan’s end doesn’t help on the open communication front.

There’s another smaller issue for me. I don’t know why but it’s stuck with me because it held such promise for being such a tiny narrative gem.

Frances is the mother of Erica, the bride whose wedding is being held in Scotland. Frances is a veritable harridan. Nasty, demanding, arrogant, Frances has made Joe’s job difficult and her name is synonymous with the worst that bridezilla mothers can deliver. But just when she’s fallen into a stereotype, Morton elevates this controlling one dimensional woman into someone human. It happens during a snowed in game night.

“ I’d thought Frances would steer the ship, but unexpectedly she defers to her husband, and there’s even a smile on her lips as they look at each other. I narrow my eyes.”

It goes further with Frances emerging as a defender of another member of her family. And Frances goes from harridan to family matriarch with a inner life of her own. What a transformation in a few sentences!

But such a subtle , and appreciated detail wasn’t to last. Morton throws away this lovely narrative gem by reducing Frances once more to a comic flat horror of a woman because Joe needed a one-liner towards the end of the romance.

It’s choices like those, where the easy narrative path was taken, rather than the one where the author must build up the storyline further with heft and a sense of fullness, that leaves this lacking.

Morton’s booklist has so many novels where such care was taken. It pains me to say that Joe Bagshaw – Moore’s isn’t one of them. I so hoped it was.

So read this because we fell in love with Joe and want to know what happened to him. Because Lily Morton is a must read for you. For all the others, you decide if it’s the age gap, second chance at love story next on your TBR pile.

First in a new series.

Amazon.comhttps://www.amazon.com › Confetti…Confetti Hearts – Kindle edition by Morton, Lily. Romance Kindle eBooks …

Description:

Joe Bagshaw doesn’t believe in love or marriage anymore, which is rather a hindrance for a wedding planner.

His own marriage was a whirlwind affair that ended before the ink could dry on the wedding certificate. Nevertheless, even with his divorce pending, he’s getting by. Or at least he was until he finds himself snowed in at a remote Scottish hotel with the wedding party from hell, a terrible ABBA tribute band, and his soon-to-be ex-husband.

Lachlan has missed Joe from the second his husband walked away. He wants Joe back and is prepared to do anything to get him. Being snowed in together seems to offer the chance Lachlan needs, but does he have what it takes to get Joe to trust in love and their marriage again?

From bestselling author Lily Morton, comes a romantic comedy about love, matrimony, and the best of second chances.

This is the first book in the Confetti Hitched series.

Review: Heart Unbroken by Casey Cox

Rating: 4.25🌈

“I didn’t want to kiss you goodbye—that was the trouble—I wanted to kiss you goodnight—and there’s a lot of difference. “ – Ernest Hemingway”

— Heart Unbroken by Casey Cox

I love a romance that is introduced with a remarkable quote that ties into the story and characters as this one does here.

Second chance at love, lovers reunited. Yes, please.

Casey Cox gives us two wonderful characters in actor Rove Sullivan, and hotelier Leo Carter, ok three with Leo ‘ best friend, Tal.

From a quick awkward meeting at Leo’s resort earlier in Rove’s career before he’s a big star, to the present where events bring them together again, Cox makes us believe that the men actually do make a deep impression on each other in the early moments. When events happen to cause each to reach out to each other, again Cox has supplied the groundwork emotionally for the reader to understand the context and connect with them.

I so enjoy Cox as a writer. The author’s romances are interesting, the characters are human beings with faults and strengths that are relatable, no matter the circumstances because they can be understood across many different levels. Job failures because of things outside of their control? Loss of dreams? Perhaps the hardest of them all. Learning when to let go of something that keeps you from moving on.

Heart Unbroken is another heartwarming contemporary romance from Casey Cox that I’m recommending. I only hope that we get a chance to see a sequel for Tal’s romance sometime soon.

Amazon.comhttps://www.amazon.com › Heart-U…Heart Unbroken – Cox, Casey: Books

Description:

ROVE

Five years ago, we had a fleeting connection. Instant attraction, sizzling chemistry, and scorching-hot sex.

It was only brief, but it was…everything.

Then my career takes off. I become one of the biggest openly out Hollywood A-listers. I’m on top of the world—rich, famous, and successful.

Until a cruel red carpet gotcha stunt blows my life apart. In the blink of an eye, I lose everything I’ve spent two decades working and sacrificing for.

I’ve got no one to turn to and nowhere to go… Except back to the man I met five years ago.

LEO

Five years ago, I met someone unforgettable.

He made me feel something I thought I’d lost forever. Something that died with my beloved Dante a decade earlier.

I never expected to see Rove again. When he returns, the spark, the chemistry, the connection, is right where we left it five years ago. Actually, it’s only intensified.

The more time we spend together, the clearer it becomes—there’s no way I can let him go again. Can we find a way to make it this time?

HEART UNBROKEN is a second chance at love MM romance with two men in their 40s, a naked meet-cute, an only-one-bed situation, found family, 90s pop culture references, and a ‘sail into the sunset’ happily ever after (literally).

Review: Aisle Be There (Runaway Grooms Book 1) by Charlie Cochet

Rating: 4.75🌈

I know I’m in for a fabulous time when I’m cackling at the very beginning of the story! Just pages in and my sides are hurting from laughing over the outfit and situation Gage Kingston finds himself in. It’s hilarious, realistically anxiety producing, and so well written that we’re drawn into Gage’s story and comedy/drama elements of his love life instantly.

So as we start, this is how we continue on! A breakneck rumble of a romantic contemporary love story that encapsulates the best elements of second chances at love, lovers reunited, and best friends who became lovers all into one singular book. One I adore.

I didn’t realize until later this was part of the Four Kings Security Universe. I don’t think you have to have read one or all of those to get with the characters and setting here. It’s narratively well laid out and Cochet’s foundation for the Runaway Grooms is very solid.

Each main character has a different but similar feel to them in that they’re both multidimensional and have depth in their respective histories. Gage with his large family, including cousins and their partners and Jett with his found family of his father’s band members.

Each person has been given aspects of their history to blend with their personalities to make them feel believable. As Jett still grieves and works through the loss of his father, we understand those emotions and actions. When Gage panics and flees when faced with a reality he’s just recognizing? We get that too. The mixture of sadness and humor, loss and love, all so human, endearing, and real.

If I had a quibble, it was that the bad guy/villain of the piece felt a little one dimensional next to all the other characters. But honestly, that was it.

Ok more more quibble. We have to wait almost an entire year for the next book in this series. Sigh. January to be exact. Oh well.

This was such a fantastic read that I’m highly recommending it. For those that like a complete read list, Cochet has a Four Kings Security Universe one at the beginning of the book and on her website. But anti don’t feel it required. I’ll leave that decision up to you.

Runaway Grooms series:

✓ Aisle Be There #1

◦ To Have and Withhold #2 – Jan 9, 2024

Aisle Be There (Runaway Grooms Book 1)

Description:

They say your wedding day is the beginning of your happily ever after.

But I’m pretty sure they never stood on a sweltering Florida beach getting ready to promise forever… only to change their mind at the last minute and be assaulted by a crustacean while fleeing the scene.

Once upon a time, I was a respected Navy officer. A guy who made a career out of managing chaos.

Now, I am the chaos, a groom on the run from my ex-fiance and his dad’s goons. Oh, and the guy driving the getaway car? That would be my ex-boyfriend, Jett.

Gorgeous. Brilliant. A guy I couldn’t help falling in love with twelve years ago.

The guy I realize I’ve always loved.

Did I mention he’s also a famous rock star on a sold-out summer tour?

This situation has disaster written all over it. But if I can manage the chaos, maybe I’ll get my happy ending after all.

———-

Four Kings Security Universe

Beware of Geeks Bearing Gifts

Love in Spades, Four Kings Security Book 1

Be Still my Heart, Four Kings Security Book 2

Ante Up – A Four Kings Security Short

Join the Club, Four Kings Security Book 3

Diamond in the Rough, Four Kings Security Book 4

Kept in the Dark, Black Ops: Operation Orion’s Belt Book 1
(This series is standalone and can be read on its own.)

In the Cards – A Four Kings Security Short

Stacking the Deck, The Kings: Wild Cards Book 1

Raising the Ante, The Kings: Wild Cards Book 2

Sleight of Hand, The Kings: Wild Cards Book 3

Aisle Be There, Runaway Grooms Book 1
(This series is standalone and can be read on its own.)

Review: The Solstice Kings by Kim Fielding

Rating: 3.25🌈

I was excited to see a book by Kim Fielding published by Tin Box Press, which meant I would be able to read and review it. Unfortunately, this fantasy tale is a bit of a mixed bag.

There’s so many potentially interesting elements here, ranging from the main character’s adopted family and it’s magical “castle” ancestral home to the lore that Fielding’s narrative inhabits so well.

But the issues start immediately with the main characters. One, Miles Thorsen, adopted son of the strange Nordic Thorsens, is not particularly likable. From the beginning he’s a bit self centered, passive, and the minute he arrives home, rude and disrespectful. So, not someone I really wanted to spend time with.

The next was Remy. Fielding made such a odd choice here regarding an aspect of his character . It’s hard to tell you all what my issues are with him without major spoilers but it’s so not in keeping with the idea and mythology that Fielding is building here to mix into her climatic point at the end. Not that we hadn’t already guessed by then. It had been telegraphed heavily by so many bluntly written clues. You are left wondering how and why he fits into this exactly . Why this form? Why not something Scandinavian? From Odin’s mythology? Just doesn’t add up.

True Fielding’s mixed Paranormal beings, beliefs, and myths before to a successful storyline but here it’s just weird. Off putting.

The story winds up as a HEA but we are left asking questions, or at least I was. Just too many holes and ill fitting narrative pieces for this to fill like the Fielding story gems I look forward too and love.

Read it if you’re a fan of the author.

Amazon

Description:

Miles Thorsen’s adopted family is… unusual. But that’s not why he fled after graduating from college. Now, after ten years of restless wandering, he returns home for the winter holiday celebration. The solstice is a time of change, and perhaps it’s time for Miles to face who he is, who he loves… and who he’ll become.

Review: Winning The Season (Miami Piranhas Book 4) by Beth Bolden

Rating: 5🌈

I’ve been waiting for this story since I started the series. It’s been hinted at throughout each book and Coach Asa Dawson is such a powerful person that he’s been able to help make each couple’s story and romance more interesting and real as it developed through the framework of the team and game.

So the references to a past drama and a unrequited love story thread for Coach just drew me in. I wanted to know what happened.

Winning The Season, the penultimate book in the Miami Piranhas series, is Beth Bolden’s love letter to the Coach of this mixed team of players of all sexualities and athletic backgrounds.

He’s been the glue to hold them together and the force to make them into a winning team.

So now he gets his own HEA.

But not without several hurdles, a bunch of painful barriers to overcome, and major forgiveness over past years wounds to old relationships.

I really loved the characters here. They rang so true. Scott Callaway, the old friend since college. He and Asa a unit since their college football playing days, through the years as a team as coaches on the smaller fields as they worked up through to the university level, always together.

Their history, deep friendship, passion for the game and each other, it all comes through so beautifully.

As does the painful experience when it all goes so badly.

The reunion is not a happy one. Nor should it be. The path back to each other is tough and paved with arguments and bad feelings. Which makes the real shift back into a truce and then more so rewarding and heartwarming.

The ending will bring out the tissues and a few sniffles I expect. I wasn’t expecting that. But it was perfect.

Winning The Season is my favorite of the series. There is one more book to come. I can’t believe it would be any better a series finale than this but I’m looking forward to reading it.

Until then, I’m highly recommending Winning The Season (Miami Piranhas Book 4) by Beth Bolden.

Miami Piranhas series:

🔹Playing For Keeps #1

🔹Playing The Player #2

🔹Playing By The Rules #3

🔹Winning The Season #4

🔹Playing Deep #5 – Feb 15,2023

Goodreadshttps://www.goodreads.com › showWinning the Season (Miami Piranhas, #4) by Beth Bolden

Description:

Coach Asa Dawson has fallen wildly in love only twice in his life.

First with football.

Then with Scott Callaway.

But Scott isn’t just the one who got away.

He’s the one person—the one man—Asa hoped might finally show him how all-consuming passion could be.

Instead, fate (and football) intervened and they never got the chance to explore their attraction. Their friendship ended in ruins, Scott left, and Asa’s been torn between hating him and loving him for the last seven years.

Asa doesn’t think he’ll ever see him again, but when his bad habits catch up to him and he doesn’t have a choice but to accept help, he’s horrified—and exhilarated—to learn Scott’s been hired to assist him.

With the final stretch of the Piranhas season falling during the holidays, maybe what Asa and Scott have needed this whole time was a little Christmas magic to remind them the most important job isn’t to win the season—but to finally win each other’s hearts.

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

Review: Fran Cuthbert Ruins Christmas by J. A. Rock and Lisa Henry

Rating: 2.5🌈

J. A. Rock and Lisa Henry are both excellent writers and their ability to craft believable characters is one of the reasons I automatically grab up any book they co-author.

Unfortunately in Fran Cuthbert Ruins Christmas, it’s one of their believable characters that’s the reason this was so close to being a DNF for me. I barely scraped by, hoping for some improvement in his personality. A false hope as it turned out.

The truth lies in the title. Fran Cuthbert not only ruin’s Christmas but this story. While the other mc is real, vulnerable, and engaging, Fran is that person you can’t trust or the character that begs the question why on earth would either writer craft someone like him to begin with as a main romantic lead.

He’s an inveterate lier, a outright thief of Christmas gifts, incapable of taking responsibility for any kind of irresponsible hurtful behavior on his part, passiveness in a manner that ends up being a weapon to hurt others, and a sense of humor that actually inflicts damage on someone he says he cares about. His only saving grace is his love for his twins girls that he’s so busy lying to.

Honestly. The authors thought Fran was someone we as readers should connect with? Find somehow awkwardly funny and adorable? Because he’s a toxic hot mess with a box load of red flags waving above him.

One of the worst things here? When his long time love (who he wronged), opens up and makes an extremely vulnerable confession to Fran, something that involves a sexual encounter that resulted in an accidental harm, what happens? Fran makes fun of him, makes Cass feel bad about himself and the encounter. By then I was done.

So am I recommending this? No. Only to those fans of these authors and I’m sure you have this on your TBR list already. For the rest of you, I’ll let you make the best choice.

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

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