Tag: #newbookreleases

Review: Twelve Days of Squidmas: A Winter Holiday MM Tentacle Romance by K.L. Hiers

Rating: 4🌈

There’s so many great things to like about K.L. Hiers’ Twelve Days of Squidmas, one of the Winter Tentacle Holiday collection. It’s got a truly poignant storyline about loss and the damage that years of family abuse does to a person. It talks about someone who’s watched and been a caregiver for someone dying of cancer. Then the reader is there, as the funeral is over, the grandmother’s death so deeply devastating that her grandson is having trouble moving forward, and his family is descending like vultures.

Bright and happy a start this is not.

But Hiers brings into this realistically portrayed scenario of a grief stricken young man alone with his loss and house, a new wild card that upsets everything Jack Marsh thought he knew about his grandmother. Jack summons Xorvash, an interdimensional tentacle creature who was his grandmother’s best friend.

Hiers has such fun and does a fantastic job capturing both the essence and power of the demon Xorvash, especially his impact on “Cuddles “. While there’s an amazing effervescent energy and joy that comes from this character and his scenes, Hiers still manages to bring in the smallest detail of Jack’s painful background and the emotional damage he’s suffered in ways that are fleeting but powerful. Then it’s onto a scene that’s familiarly funny and satisfying for the season.

I enjoyed the many side characters and storylines, especially the next door neighbors. I wish that aspect could have been more developed as a few details were left unexplored.

Same went for the ending. It wasn’t exactly satisfying. Jack and Horvash go to all that trouble to boot the family out of the house and then what? They leave and what happens to the house? That was an important narrative loose end that was left flapping around. And it should have been a simple one to explain or tie up.

Things like this make me wonder why, when the rest of the piece is so well written and emotionally balanced.

I’m recommending Twelve Days of Squidmas: A Winter Holiday MM Tentacle Romance by K.L. Hiers because even with these quibbles it’s a pleasure to read.

Tinsel and Tentacles (11 books)

◦ Jingle Bells and Elder Gods by Kiernan Kelly

✓ All I Want for Christmas is Tentacles by Chloe Archer ❤️🫶

◦ Tentacles and Other Stocking Stuffers by Delaney Rain

◦ Tentacles Rock by K.C. Carmine

✓ A Sucker for Christmas by J.P. Sayle

✓ Kraken Klaus by Charlotte Brice

✓ Twelve Days of Squidmas by H.L. Hiers ❤️

✓ It’s a Tenta-ful Life by Amanda Muewissen

✓ Rebel without a Claus by L Eveland

✓ Cthulhu for Christmas by Meghan Maslow ❤️🫶

◦ Tentacle Wonderland by Reese Morrison

Buy Link:

Twelve Days of Squidmas: A Winter Holiday MM Tentacle Romance

Blurb:

Jack Marsh has twelve days to pull off the perfect Christmas.

Even though his beloved grandmother has just passed, his rotten family is expecting him to host in her place. He already hated this time of year, and now he has to decorate, bake cookies, wrap presents, and create a delicious holiday feast.

Enter Xorvash, an interdimensional tentacle creature from another plane of existence. Thanks to a minor kitchen mishap, Xorvash comes crashing into Jack’s life and promises to do the impossible. Jack suspects Xorvash’s interest in him goes far beyond merely wanting to help him deck the halls, and he’s having trouble resisting Xorvash’s unique charms. With some luck and a sprinkle of holiday magic, Jack might get some sweet tentacle romance for Christmas—plus a little miracle or two.

Twelve Days of Squidmas is part of the Tinsel and Tentacles multi-author collaboration and a complete standalone. Expect to find a grumpy human and a sunshine tentacle creature, lots of silly snark, smexy tentacle times, and a magical happily ever after. Want more tantalizingly tentacular winter holiday romances? Grab the whole series!

• Publisher: (December 15, 2023)

• Publication date: December 15, 2023

• Print length: 167 pages

Review: A World Apart: An MM Urban Fantasy Romance (Learning to Breathe Book 2) by Carole Cummings and Andy Gallo

Rating: 5🌈

A World Apart picks up from the events of the last novel, A World Away, the first in Cummings and Gallo’s excellent LGBTQIA syfi series.

Best friends and now lovers, Camilo Almenara and Nathan Duffy have been through unbelievable hardships, family losses ,and challenges, which have included Nathan’s paralysis, then gaining the experimental implants that allowed the military to draft him and Cam. There’s a war going on, mages are real, and Nathan’s talent is so powerful, that along with Cam, the mission to find more talents on parallel worlds is one he’s already been assigned to.

The format the authors use for the story, a countdown of time as the mission draws near, then as it happens, is powerful.

It brings us into the anticipatory phase of the mission and everyone’s mindset as they are getting ready. All the multiple elements that occur, all the various , random stuff that plays into scenes and moments before an unknown mission. The reader is there, intimately inside their minds, with the characters. From friends, family, even if that family be high authority military figures themselves, Cummings and Gallo, makes the reader a part of the action, writing realistic and grounded dialogue that makes a futuristic story and alternate universe feel alive and familiar.

Then comes the mission.

From the highly anticipated to the emotionally charged and powerful, to the suspense sustained scenes as the revelations start to occur, the narrative is superb and the plotting tightly woven together and the depth of details outstanding.

Especially towards the climactic, horrifying scenes near the end.

No spoilers. But honestly, it’s heartbreaking at times. And as much as I wanted the authors to expand on parts of that ending, I’m not sure it wouldn’t have taken away from the emotional impact as it’s already written.

There’s so many questions left unanswered, so many compelling details that was definitely delivered in a short but important way at the end.

I have no idea if this series is over. I’m ok if it is. I’m ok if there’s more to come. Outstanding characters, an ever-expanding universe at war that it’s losing, children as gun fodder, sounds so familiar. Cummings and Gallo’s take on this old refrain is emotional and extremely well written.

I’m highly recommending both books, to be read in the order that they are written.

Learning To Breathe:

✓ A World Away #1

✓ A World Apart #2

Buy Link:

A World Apart: An MM Urban Fantasy Romance (Learning to Breathe Book 2)

Blurb:

There are an infinite number of universes and each has its own story. Not all of them have happy endings.

Two years after he nearly died, Nathan Duffy is living his dream. He and Camilo are finally the ‘them’ Nathan always wanted. But Nathan quickly learns everything comes with a price. The military gave him experimental implants that help him walk again, but he’s drafted and assigned to a dangerous, special ops, off-world unit. He and Camilo are together, but the military assigns Cam to the same dangerous mission. Nathan knows he’d do everything he can to keep Cam safe, even sacrifice himself to save the man he loves.

Two years after he nearly lost the only man he’s ever loved, Camilo Almenara refuses to let anything come between him and Nathan. Not his father, the military, nor Nathan’s irrational belief that only Cam’s life mattered. To ensure the man he loves comes home, Cam makes sure he is assigned to the same off world mission as Nathan. He knows the assignment is dangerous, but he believes they are stronger together than apart.

Misfortune strikes the operation, and two team members are captured. Nathan is forced assumes command and must work a resistance movement he doesn’t fully trust. The plan to rescue their friends hit unexpected resistance and Nathan cuts off communications with everyone in an attempt to save them all. Faced with his worst nightmare come true, Cam races to reach Nathan and convince him not to give up on ‘them.’

A World Apart is the 100K sequel to A World Away. It follows the established couple as they fight to build a life together in a dangerous world. This book includes an alternative universe, the continuation of a romance, and more selflessness as the two best friends struggle to transition from friends to lovers.

• Publication date: December 23, 2023

• Language: English

• Print length: 358 pages

Review: Taking the Body (Watkins Glen Gladiators #4) by V.L. Locey

Rating: 4.75🌈

Taking The Body just became my favorite of this series . I laughed so hard so much of the time when reading it, mostly due to the outrageous family tales related to various people by the main character, hockey player, Phil Greco. He’s such an entertaining and highly engaging person. Irish/Italian from Queens, New York, once he appears on the page, he’s got the reader’s total attention.

Locey must have had such an incredible time writing this man and his unique voice. He had me in stitches but he was also such a believable person, grounded in family and a recognizable location such as Flushing.

Frenchman Henri Gaudion, of Gaudion Winery, and his wonderful found family of staff, that includes his butler, Barnaby, is a well defined character and great match for gregarious Phil. His character is also a very poignant person. Locey has created in Henri such a relatable person and backstory. Henri’s background is one of loss, constant inter-family fighting over the winery and his sexuality, and finally, the ways in which Henri has isolated himself due to the fears caused by his illness and approaching blindness. His emotional walls are those of fear and experience.

Watching Phil moving through that previously ordered and quiet existence as seen and heard through both men’s perspectives is such a joy and utter blissful experience.

And that Locey wove The Nanny and Fran Drescher into this? Priceless!

The only thing that keeps the story from a total 5 rating is that the ending came about rather quickly. It feels too abrupt. Had that been extended to go into a little longer explanation of the situation, and not leaving that other renter hanging, then this would have been a 5+ story.

As it is, Taking the Body (Watkins Glen Gladiators #4) by V.L. Locey is my favorite of a lovely series. I hope to see more of this couple in the stories to come.

Watkins Glen Gladiators:

✓ Between The Pipes #1

✓ Defending The House #2

✓ Dump and Chase #3

✓ Taking The Body #4

Buy Link:

One’s from Flushing, New York, the other from Ambroise, France. Worlds, wit, and passions are about to collide!

Phil Greco is that player that every opponent and their fanbase hates but secretly wishes played for their team. Greck is a mouthy guy, high-spirited, and able to tweak nerves with relative ease. Having grown up with a large family he’d learned early that you had to fight for what you wanted. This is how a short, undrafted guy from Flushing made it as far as he had. It had taken no small amount of bull&*#*, grit, and plenty of wit. Generally that wit and grit was enough to get him on the top of the pileup but that’s not the case with Henri Gaudion, owner of Gaudion Winery. Ever since they’d met sparks have flown, and for the life of him, Phil cannot understand what it is about the suave, well-dressed, handsome French vintner that makes him so edgy. They have nothing in common aside from a love of Watkins Glen, so why does he keep finding himself so drawn to the lean man with the rapier wit? Sure, he was pretty, and did keep him on his toes, but Phil’s not the kind of fella to be drawn to such a fancy pants rich boy. How stupid would it be to think that a hoodlum like him could ever catch a man like Henri? Not that he wanted to catch the stuck-up winemaker…

Henri Gaudion has no time for shenanigans or those who engage in them, especially boorish braggarts on skates. Yes, he enjoys the game of hockey and having the Gladiators hockey team and the local gentry at his chalet overlooking Seneca Lake every Sunday for brunch, but that’s solely for keeping up appearances. Since the death of his father, he has devoted his life to ensuring the lands bequeathed to him produce the finest wines and champagne in the Finger Lakes district. Henri is a lonely, heartbroken man when the blinds are drawn and the erudite mask is dropped. He also has no room in his life for rowdy little men with bright smiles, cheeky winks, and heavily accented, fanciful tales about his large Italian family back in, of all places, Flushing. The pull that he’s feeling for Phil Greco must be some sort of glitch, or perhaps he’s been spending too much time in the tasting rooms. Whatever the reason, he is not about to let his attraction to Phil grow. It would be impossible for two such incompatible men to fall in love. Wouldn’t it?

Taking the Body is a low-angst, opposites attract queer hockey romance with a mouthy hockey player, a refined vintner, a whole lot of forced proximity, on-ice action, evenings spent sipping wine, a nosy butler, even nosier teammates, a large loving family, and a perfectly aged happy ending.

• Publication date: January 5, 2024

• Print length: 193 pages

Check Out the latest Tour for The Wasteland Kings by Jaimie N. Schock

The Wasteland Kings - Jaimie N. Schock

Jaimie N. Schock has a new queer sci-fi book (MM romance subplots) book out: The Wasteland Kings. And there’s a giveaway.

Hacker Bast has it all: a cushy condo, a sexy boyfriend, and a place among the wealthy elite. When his past catches up with him, he flees into the dreary and dangerous wastelands between domed cities. There, he meets Delphi, who saves him, and Galeron, who runs a small town. He is anything but safe, however, as robotic “dogs” roam the countryside, looking for people to kill, and humans can be just as deadly.

As Bast settles in to life in the town, he develops a controversial relationship with Galeron. They fall in love, but all is not well in their world. Can the two of them survive and reach the happy ending they long for, or will the wastelands take everything they hold dear?

Warnings: Guns, death, child death, violence, animal death, suicide, drug use, nazis.

Universal Buy Link

Giveaway

Jaimie is giving away a $20 Amazon gift card with this tour:

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Direct Link: http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/b60e8d47305/

Excerpt

Breakfast was water. Lunch was water. Dinner was water. By the end of the next day, he had very little left.

He looked for anything that might help him survive. He found paper to start a fire; large decorative stones that he could throw at an animal; an ancient first aid kit featuring gauze, medical glue, tape, and rubbing alcohol; and a shaker filled with salt.

Bast couldn’t believe he’d found so much. He still needed food, however, and his hunger pangs were getting more severe as time went on.

He took an unopened bag of potato chips—not to eat, but to hopefully bring out animals that might be interested in consuming its contents. That night, he dumped the degraded snack into three piles and waited with a rock in hand.

The only thing that showed any interest was a large rat. It looked less than appetizing.

Bast didn’t hesitate. He threw a stone and then jumped on the dazed animal. He smashed its head with a larger rock. Breathing quickly, he sat back and stared at the dead creature.

He wondered if it was safe to eat, even cooked. After all, this animal lived in a polluted world.

First things first, he had to gut it. He’d seen people do it in old survival videos. Taking his small knife, he made an incision along the abdomen and began carefully digging out the digestive system, so as not to break it open. He imagined the bacteria in the stomach and intestines would ruin the meat if it got out. He gagged more than once and tasted bile.

Bast cut off the crushed head and placed the animal in a cigar box. It would last a day or so, he thought. The air was cold, to the point of making him shiver, so it should help preserve the rat.

Now, he really needed to find a way to make fire.

After sleeping for a few hours, he started out as soon as the sun poked through the trees. He wasn’t an expert on survival—not even close. But he knew from movies that there were ways to produce a spark without the use of a lighter or matches.

Near mid-day, he found what he needed:

An old pair of glasses, tucked into the pocket of a person’s naturally mummified corpse.

It was one of several bodies he encountered so far. Bast didn’t want to touch it. The thought of being around a long-dead body made him queasy. The only other times he’d seen a dead body were at funerals and when he killed that police officer. This was different. The body thankfully didn’t smell anymore, but it looked horrific. Drawn lips over skeletal teeth. Missing eyes. Gnarled hands clutching at nothing. If he didn’t need the glasses to survive, he would have stayed far away from the corpse.

He planned to utilize the sun by focusing light onto the paper and hopefully burning it. Bast took the glasses and the rat and found a clearing. He placed the paper and some small sticks on a pile and tried to aim sunlight at it.

At first, it didn’t work. Then, the paper began to smolder. Small amounts of smoke rose up, and he could smell ashes. Bast joyfully added bigger sticks and blew on the fire to encourage it. When the fire grew, he stuck his dead rat on a metal rod and held it over the flames. He couldn’t be happier to eat a day-old polluted rat.

He cooked the animal until it was nearly too tough to eat. Bast pulled off the greasy meat with his fingers and ate it all in little more than a minute. He was still very hungry when he discarded the bones and fur.

Regardless, he felt energized by the small amount of food. And now he knew he could cook something if and when he caught another critter. For the first time, he felt hopeful—and then he ran out of water.

For the next twenty-four hours or so, Bast spent nearly every waking moment looking for more liquids. He would have tried old beverages of almost any kind if it meant he could have his thirst satisfied.

He found nothing. With the empty water jug in hand, he stooped over a stream, wondering if it was worth tempting fate. He could certainly find a pot and boil the water, which would take care of germs, but if it was filled with chemicals, plastics, and man-made contaminants, no amount of boiling would fix that. He knew he was still pretty close to the cities. He knew it could kill him. Sighing, he filled the jug and put it in his bag.

Bast went another full day without drinking anything. It was agony. He found an empty metal bottle and put that in a fire with some of the creek water. By the time it cooled enough to drink, a black slime covered the top of the liquid. He threw it out, preferring to die over drinking something that disgusting.

His limbs stopped working properly. He tripped while walking along uneven asphalt. When he looked down at his bleeding knee, his vision tunneled, and he passed out.

Author Bio

Jaimie N. Schock

Jaimie N. Schock is an author, editor, and journalist with nearly two decades of professional experience. She has been published in newspapers and magazines and has released nine fiction novels.

She is married and living in Northern Virginia. Though she have an extensive career, she is disabled with PTSD and chronic illness. Schock tries to incorporate her life experiences into the fictional pieces she writes while delivering complex and diverse characters. Her pronouns are she/her, and she is proudly a member of the LGBTQIA+ community.

Author Website: https://www.jaimieschock.com/

Author Facebook (Personal): https://www.facebook.com/jai.schock

Author Facebook (Author Page): https://www.facebook.com/JaimieNSchock/

Author Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/heroesgetmade/

Author Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/18982110.Jaimie_N_Schock

Author Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Jaimie-N.-Schock/author/B07THB22QK

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Review: Dead Serious Case #4 Professor Prometheus Plume: MM Paranormal Romance & Dark Comedy (Crawshanks Guide to the Recently Departed) by Vawn Cassidy

Rating: 5🌈

Vawn Cassidy’s Crawshanks Guide to the Recently Departed is one of my favorite series. Dark humor, beautifully realized characters, and extremely well executed plots that convey the heartbreak and the joy of love and romance, the horror and hope of experiencing life and losing it, as well as the light and darkness that exists beyond. It’s all there in every story.

Each book revolves around a case of a dead person. Sometimes it’s horrifying, sometimes hilariously funny or tragic and traumatic. Sometimes it’s both sad and frightening. And all these things.

In Dead Serious Case #3 Mr Bruce Reyes #3, the small group, Inspector Danny Hayes, forensic pathologist Tristan Everett, ghost Dusty Le Frey, and her boyfriend, ghost Bruce Abernathy, among others, helped save the world. A scary, horrific tale, even if being immensely satisfying.

Now, Cassidy has written a fabulous story, one that’s naturally got a crime, a murder, a manor house full of the most wildly entertaining and exasperating people and ghosts. A natural bookend to the one prior.

The story opens up, realistically and wryly in the morgue, with an extremely exhausted Tristan trying to complete an examination, with ghostly onlookers inference. The outcome of this wonderful scenario will see two very tired men on a much needed holiday. One of which keeps trying to find the perfect place to propose.

What ensues is absolute narrative perfection. Amidst high comedy, murder most theatrical, and ghostly antics at The Ashton-Drake Manor House Hotel, Cassidy’s also includes the raw issues these men face and the daily pain of their experiences. There’s an emotional reunion between Danny and his long estranged family, as well the wrenching emotional scenes of Tris trying to come to terms with the reality of his father’s approaching death from dementia.

The hijinks , murder included, to be found at the Manor, is a romp over the reality that Danny and Tris have left behind. When I say that Cassidy has created new characters and moments so quietly hilarious that I’d say they were “spew worthy” is to be understated.

Ah, Dilys! This the ancient, tiny bartender will forever be held responsible for the wine stains on the carpet as I giggled away at her approach!

I fell so deeply in love with everyone at The Ashton-Drake Manor House Hotel, alive and ghostly, that I want the author to revisit this location and entertaining little group of inhabitants, whether it’s by a individual book or story in this series in the future. They are simply so perfect to consign to one book.

Throughout the events that occur and the characters that make up the zaniness’s of this investigation, this is one fabulous piece of murder that ranks among my favorite books of the year.

Of course, it’s a gift from the author, because the ending proves that this has always been a part of the larger universe and the scary enlarging arc the author’s been creating.

So amazing. Breathtaking really. For now we are halfway prepared for the darkness to come.

The is a series that’s an absolute must read, but do it in the order that the books are written. Highly recommended, at the top of my rec list.

Fabulous cover as usual.

Crawshanks Guide to the Recently Departed:

✓ Dead Serious Case #1 Miz Dusty Le Frey #1

✓ Dead Serious Case #2 Mrs Delores Abernathy #2

✓ Dead Serious Case #3 Mr Bruce Reyes #3

✓ Dead Serious Case #4 Professor Prometheus Plume #4

◦ Dead Serious Case #5 Madame Vivienne: Schedule 2024

Buy Link:

Dead Serious Case #4 Professor Prometheus Plume: MM Paranormal Romance & Dark Comedy (Crawshanks Guide to the Recently Departed)

Blurb:

Inspector Danny Hayes has something very important to ask his boyfriend Tristan Everett. Over the past six months they’ve survived reapers, chaos monsters, and biblical storms, not to mention averting an apocalypse. So, what’s left to do but pop the big question?

Tristan is ready for a break from world-saving, spectral crises, and most definitely from ghosts. He wants some one-on-one time with his boyfriend, preferably horizontally. So when their Boxing Day celebrations result in a drunken booking of a romantic New Year’s getaway at a quiet little hotel near the wilds of the north Yorkshire moors, Tristan can’t wait.

But as usual nothing ever goes according to plan. Snowed in during an unexpected murder mystery weekend at what turns out to be one of the most haunted hotels in Northern England is not what they had in mind, but when one of the actors turns up really dead not just fake dead, they once again find themselves caught up in another investigation.

With only one night to figure out who the killer is while wrangling a multitude of overly helpful ghosts, Tristan begins to wonder if romance really is dead…

• Publisher: (December 31, 2023)

• Publication date: December 31, 2023

• Print length: 285 pages

Review: Kraken Klaus: A winter Holiday MM Tentacle Romance by Charlotte Brice

Rating: 3🌈

A crossover with Charlotte Brice’s ShiftARS series, Kraken Klaus has some interesting ideas and mythology woven into the romance storyline of a young mershifter in his first job aboard a ocean liner and the kraken, God of the Sea, he awakens.

The character of Moshe is very appealing. Young, impressionable, and good hearted, the author gives Moshe an equally interesting history and background to accompany his endearing personality.

Brice skimps on the information about his immediate family life, his mother and imposing, often absent , famous Captain of a father. Those details are needed to understand why Moshe is so underrated and ignorant of Mer history.

Also a good plot line but not fully explored was the toxic dumping. There was more structure that needed to be laid down for this story line. It’s a major part of the book but at the end, the reader is still left with a number of questions about why no one notices on board ship that this is going on at sea , what ever happens to Moshe’s father, the toxic investigation results, etc. That’s all discarded in favor of the romance.

The romance is the main plot, of course. Lots of tentacles and tentacles sex, with a bit of kink. FYI. The newly awakened Kraken is detailed in his looks and lack of current knowledge of the status quo between humans , shifters and such. That made total sense. But oddly not as powerful as one might expect for a God of the Sea. Seemed more Kraken Lite.

Ryuu does a narrative service here by revealing much of the backstory behind the Mermaid/Mer shifters and why they have been so land removed, rarely being able to shift into their original forms. It’s a mixture of myths, sort of paying the price for wanting legs.

The siren aspect is unclear as it’s brought in very late in the story.

However, how Brice describes and handles it, makes me want so much more. And have it brought in earlier on so it felt more like an overall part of the story than an add on. It was one of my favorite things about the story and Moshe’s character. Over way too soon.

Spoilers.The ending, nicely dramatic, had too many loose ends and odd moments. Moshe just forgot about his family and ran off to live in an underwater palace with Ryuu the Kraken, complete with a kitchen and tea kettle of sorts. And lots of edible moss . Forever.

All in all, Kraken Klaus: A winter Holiday MM Tentacle Romance by Charlotte Brice has some interesting elements and some really sexy moments. A grab bag of fun and tentacles under the sea. But it didn’t quite gel for me. It might for you.

You read the description and decide for yourself.

Tinsel and Tentacles (11 books)

◦ Jingle Bells and Elder Gods by Kiernan Kelly

✓ All I Want for Christmas is Tentacles by Chloe Archer ❤️🫶

◦ Tentacles and Other Stocking Stuffers by Delaney Rain

◦ Tentacles Rock by K.C. Carmine

✓ A Sucker for Christmas by J.P. Sayle

✓ Kraken Klaus by Charlotte Brice

◦ Twelve Days of Squidmas by H.L. Hiers

◦ It’s a Tenta-ful Life by Amanda Muewissen

✓ Rebel without a Claus by L Eveland

✓ Cthulhu for Christmas by Meghan Maslow ❤️🫶

◦ Tentacle Wonderland by Reese Morrison – Jan 1,2024

Buy Link:

Kraken Klaus: A winter Holiday MM Tentacle Romance

Blurb:

This is not your typical Christmas story. Sure, it’s set on a Christmas holiday cruise liner. Of course there is a roast turkey dinner with all the trimmings. Yes, there are presents, chocolate and tinsel…

…but there are also tentacles. And we all know that is what you came for.

When Moshe realises his fellow mer crew are dumping toxic chemicals into the sea, under the guise of holiday cruises, he is horrified.

When the only song he can ever remember lures up a giant sea octopus, he can finally stop his own people from polluting the sea.

But Ryuu has other things on his mind. He responded to the song of his mate. Sure, he’ll destroy the boat for his love, but Moshe demands the passengers be unharmed.

Thank goodness the ShiftARS are there to do the actual work, these two are very easily distracted by all the wonderful Christmas things Moshe will leave behind when he joins Ryuu out at sea.

Ryuu couldn’t deny his boy a final experience of Christmas, even if he doesn’t understand stuff like the forest of chocolate trees, or the Christmas Daddy.

Kraken Klaus is part of the Tinsel and Tentacles multi-author collaboration and a complete standalone.

Want more tantalizingly tentacular winter holiday romances? Grab the whole series!

Review: A Sucker for Christmas: A Winter Holiday MM Tentacle Romance by J P Sayle

Rating: 3.5🌈

J P Sayle’s A Sucker for Christmas is a fun, sweet addition to the Winter Holiday Tentacle collection.

A best friends to lovers story with an added twist of one of them being an octopus shifter, there’s not a lot a universe building or exploration of the octopus shifter culture here. It’s a soulmate relationship, where the shifter recognizes his mate early on in life, in this case, at the age 4, but again no real background is known other than Fitch’s parents revealing their own human/octopus courtship.

However, even without a shifter framework, this does cutely work on the misunderstandings/doubts that occur between two established best friends who are afraid to take the next step into a romance.

There’s the sister Mandy to assist with this, and the madcap events that follow.

There are many questions about the relationship, the culture, that never really get answered. But the characters are adorable and the Australian location perfect for the romance.

Christmas down under style with octopus tentacles . Very cute.

Tinsel and Tentacles (11 books)

◦ Jingle Bells and Elder Gods by Kiernan Kelly

✓ All I Want for Christmas is Tentacles by Chloe Archer ❤️🫶

◦ Tentacles and Other Stocking Stuffers by Delaney Rain

◦ Tentacles Rock by K.C. Carmine

✓ A Sucker for Christmas by J.P. Sayle

✓ Kraken Klaus by Charlotte Brice

◦ Twelve Days of Squidmas by H.L. Hiers

◦ It’s a Tenta-ful Life by Amanda Muewissen

✓ Rebel without a Claus by L Eveland

✓ Cthulhu for Christmas by Meghan Maslow ❤️🫶

◦ Tentacle Wonderland by Reese Morrison – Jan 1,2024

Buy Link:

A Sucker for Christmas: A Winter Holiday MM Tentacle Romance

Blurb:

An annual Christmas vacation to Australia gives two long-term friends more than they bargained for—love. But one of them has a secret that could suck in more ways than one.

Fitch found his soulmate, Shaun, when they were both four years old, but they were separated by two things, a couple of oceans and their age. Not to mention the secret Fitch has been keeping. The fact you can turn into an octopus at will isn’t the kind of thing to be sprung on anyone, especially a soul mate.

Every winter, Shaun heads down under to spend Christmas with his family. For the last twenty years, he’s spent his favorite holiday surfing and lazing around on golden beaches with his best friend, Fitch. Shaun wants more than friendship, however, but has no clue how to get the man of his dreams to see him as more than a friend. Enter Mandy, Shaun’s sister, and Christmas is all set to become an adventure with hilarious consequences.

Fitch and Shaun are about to find out how to deal with the discovery that true love comes with suckers.

A Sucker for Christmas: A Winter Holiday MM Tentacle Romance is part of the Tinsel and Tentacles multi-author collaboration and a complete standalone. Expect to find steam worthy of an Olympian swimmer and laugh out loud moments that will make your ribs ache. Want more tantalizingly tentacular winter holiday romances? Grab the whole series!

• Publisher: (December 4, 2023)

• Publication date: December 4, 2023

• Print length: 222 pages

Review: The Royal Curse (Twilight Mages Book 1) by Eliot Grayson

Rating: 3🌈

I enjoy a high fantasy fiction even if the descriptions aren’t exactly in alignment with my tastes. Like that of The Royal Curse (Twilight Mages Book 1) by Eliot Grayson.

Grayson’s storyline revolves around a cursed Prince of a small Kingdom , a winter trip he desperately wants to take to a magical gathering , and the soldier his mother, the Queen, has assigned as his guardian and the leader of their traveling expedition.

While I thought that there were some interesting things and nice moments here, overall, Grayson’s story missed the narrative mark.

I had issues with this book on multiple narrative levels, which made Greyson’s fantasy story , one that had some interesting plot lines , a bit of a muddle. And one that needs more of a trigger warning about sexual assault, and more.

First is the lack of any world building. There’s no real understanding of how this world works. Grayson delivers up that vague mythology explanation for Prince Nikola’s cursed magic but nothing more about the other magic present.

And its origin and the extent of its use in this world, not just in Nikola’s Kingdom.

Mages and their status is unclear but they appear to be esteemed. But how widespread they are isn’t known because, even after hundreds of years, there’s no real written record of Nikola’s cursed magic and any kind of magical ability to restore him.

All of this is just odd. It’s just not logical. But that’s the way the author has it folded into the story. A beloved and coddled Prince with cursed magic and a powerful Queen as a mother but she hasn’t been trying to find a cure or an appropriate remedy all these years?

Because then he wouldn’t need to go over the mountains in winter to go to some magical gathering to seek out a solution for his own curse? Carrying only a few bottles of his precious potion in a saddlebag of all things?

Sigh.

The author has a focus but isn’t laying down enough foundation for the various plot lines and characters to rest upon.

That brings me to the characters. Prince Nikola isn’t very likable at the beginning, at least for me. He’s very picture of entitled,childish, whiny to the point his siblings have had enough of him. Even his mother has stopped talking to him. I wanted to muzzle him. He has a cursed type of magic. Got it. But he’s been castrating himself chemically rather than looking for other solutions and that’s his choice. But he strikes at other people who love him for this.

Nope not getting his character. He makes this an almost DNF early on.

Andreas, the soldier who’s assigned to be his bodyguard/boss by the Queen, is a better character. He’s solid, more competent. But the very late (98 %) in the book explanation for his “love” for Nikola, his Prince, is brief and without any context. So is the constant fear of their sexual relationship being one of treason.

Thats another aspect of the story that makes no sense whatsoever.

Nikola’s magic makes him go through a rut-like, mindless lust process that makes him feel like he has to have sex (be the one to be on the receiving end, as though that’s a bad thing) as the magic eats him up inside. Otherwise he dies. Who it is Nikola has sex with doesn’t matter , so he drugs himself limp. Ok yes, lots of questions here that are never answered. He knows enough about the magic to chemically castrate himself but after hundreds of years of this magic existence, nothing more important to positively improve his life?

But having to have sex with Andreas, because choices are very limited, death or sex, how does this become treasonous? Not sure the author worked it out throughly. And the subject carries with it, no matter what the author tries to overlay it with, an atmosphere of non consent because either way, Nikola has no choice.

Finally,another spoiler of sorts. The author has in the description that “There is an attempted on-page sexual assault that is not between the main characters.” However, while it’s not between the main characters, there’s a very graphic on page attempted sexual assault on one of the main characters later in the story that is unexpected. This follows a kidnapping scene and one of physical violence on the main character. All of these scenes should come with a trigger warning.

So for those readers, please take note.

Final thoughts on The Royal Curse (Twilight Mages Book 1) by Eliot Grayson.

I like cohesive storytelling and structure and just think this was missing a strong sense of both.

It’s the first in a series but I’m not sure I’ll be going forward. You decide if this sounds likes it’s right for you.

Buy Link:

The Royal Curse (Twilight Mages Book 1)

Blurb:

Dawn mage. Twilight mage. Cursed, useless, damaged, dangerous…

His birth magic leaves Prince Nikola with nothing but bad choices: live as another man’s possession, subject to his whims and his desires, or remain dependent on a potion that stunts his powers and prevents him from knowing love.

Andreas vows to protect the prince with his life—whether Nikola wants him to or not. After all, the queen pays his soldier’s wage. Nikola’s nothing but a job to do.

But when they find themselves stranded, with Nikola’s potion running out, Andreas has to…improvise. Because what Prince Nikola needs to survive is the opposite of a lowly guard’s respectful protection.

It should’ve been only one night. Just until the potion’s refilled. But now that Nikola’s had Andreas’s touch, he craves Andreas again and again. He shouldn’t. But he—and his magic—can’t live without it…

The Royal Curse is a high-heat MM fantasy romance with a stubborn prince, an even more stubborn soldier, and cursed magic that can’t be denied. There is an on-page attempted sexual assault that is not between the main characters. HEA guaranteed.

The Royal Curse is a high-heat MM fantasy romance with a stubborn prince, an even more stubborn soldier, and cursed magic that can’t be denied. There is an attempted on-page sexual assault that is not between the main characters. HEA guaranteed.”

Review: Cthulhu for Christmas: A Winter Holiday MM Tentacle Romance by Megan Maslow

Rating: 4.75🌈

I’m such a sucker immediately for anything that Maslow writes, especially when she’s putting the story smack dab near me. Maryland, specifically, around the Chesapeake Bay, Baltimore close by. Places I know and love.

Plus the added factor of a Christmas collection! I’ve been reading a lot of those lately, many set up in Vermont (I get it, gorgeous and Hallmark) or the pacific northwest coast. Seattle, or quirky Portland. That too is perfect for a story location.

But when it came to tentacles and tinsel? Meghan Maslow went Chesapeake Bay! And I love it. Maslow creates an imaginary island in the Bay, called (perfection) Old Bay Island. Old Bay, which, for those who might not know, is a traditional spice here that’s used on practically everything.

There’s even a map of the island included with the story.

Zen King, a police officer with the OBI police department, is ready to leave for a future the island keeps denying him. One of the foster children that finds themselves a home there, nevertheless, he never gets a promotion, and his crush on his best friend , one of the island’s first families, seems unlikely to change. His best friend, Grey Criswel, has secrets, and is a superb personality too.

I love the characters here. From the town grump to mysterious librarian, each is an intriguing, layered portrait of a person or animal. Can’t forget the beaver or reindeer. And the town itself, from one building to the next, is as memorable as can be. Maslow builds a small universe within the island , populating it with people and adding to the history and mythology as the story grows.

There’s murder, mystery, romance, and , tentacles, very sexy tentacles!

Oh my!

Honestly, I could dwell a bit more here and think Maslow (who’s probably overwhelmed with more books and requests as it is) needs to add this universe to her list of ones that need a sequel. I can think of several characters who also need their own stories and HEA, or HFN.

Anyway Cthulhu for Christmas: A Winter Holiday MM Tentacle Romance by Megan Maslow was a fantastic way to start the collection. She crushed it. I need more!

I’m onto more stories, more tentacles, giddy with anticipation!

And happy to recommend this book to everyone who loves the author and the elements described.

Great cover.

Tinsel and Tentacles (11 books)

◦ Jingle Bells and Elder Gods by Kiernan Kelly

◦ All I Want for Christmas is Tentacles by Chloe Archer

◦ Tentacles and Other Stocking Stuffers by Delaney Rain

◦ Tentacles Rock by K.C. Carmine

◦ A Sucker for Christmas by J.P. Sayle

◦ Kraken Klaus by Charlotte Brice

◦ Twelve Days of Squidmas by H.L. Hiers

◦ It’s a Tenta-ful Life by Amanda Muewissen

◦ Rebel without a Claus by L Eveland

✓ Cthulhu for Christmas by Meghan Maslow ❤️🫶

◦ Tentacle Wonderland by Reese Morrison – Jan 1,2024

Buy Link:

Cthulhu for Christmas: A Winter Holiday MM Tentacle Romance

Blurb:

Six accidental tentacles, five naked neighbors, four evil mages, three ugly sweaters, two dead bodies, and one crush on my straight best friend . . .

Some things are simple fact: Santa Claus isn’t real and magic doesn’t exist. As a former foster kid turned cop, I know this for a fact. My life is anything but magical and Santa sure as hell never visited me as a kid.

Another fact in my life: I’ve been in love with Grey Criswel, my gorgeous—and straight—best friend, since we met. Unfortunately, he’s not going to make my secret Christmas wish come true this year—or ever.

But before I know it, fact and fantasy are starting to get all mixed up. I thought I knew Old Bay Isle and its residents like the back of my hand. Now I’m dealing with a bunch of naked carolers refusing to put on their damn clothes and mysterious happenings at the lighthouse. Oh, and murder. Because what says happy holidays like a corpse at a Christmas tree farm?

Worse yet, I’m suddenly afflicted with an aquatic ailment of sorts. Namely—tentacles. Six of them to be exact. Attached. To. My. Back. They even have their own opinions. And they all agree they want Grey. Could he maybe want them—and me—back? Things are so topsy-turvy I’m starting to believe the impossible just might be possible because it turns out magic is real after all . . .

Cthulhu for Christmas is a standalone novel in the Tinsel and Tentacles multi-author winter holiday MM tentacle romance series. It features Zen King—a cop with a tentacular dilemma, a best friend with a closet full (heh) of secrets, a sharp-tongued former foster mom, a beaver for a roommate, found family, and a guaranteed happily-ever-after.

• Publisher: Pun City Pantser (December 29, 2023)

• Publication date: December 29, 2023

• Print length: 239 pages

Review: A Heart To Revitalize Me: The Magic Accounts 4.5 (The Magi Accounts Companion Stories) by Michele Notaro

Rating: 4.75🌈

A Heart To Revitalize Me is the penultimate book in Michele Notaro’s fantastic dark fantasy series, The Magi Accounts. In between the main novels, Notaro has been writing companion stories, narrative side journeys through different characters lives or scenarios from the series . Each companion piece has been so distinct. One looks back on previous happenings, but seen from another important character’s perspective, giving the reader insights into those horrifying moments from his POV. Others take ongoing events of the current timeline and revolve around developing certain characters relationships further.

That happens here in A Heart To Revitalize Me, where mage Logan and tiger shifter, Haiden, finally get their story and the romance the readers have been waiting for.

In this dark, torturous dystopian world that Notaro has been creating, not even a long awaited journey to first love is going to happen without the harsh realities of that world crashing into the sweetness and light of love discovered.

And that’s both the horror and the beauty of this series (and story). The author has crafted characters we have grown to love, watched them develop and change, moving through the trauma and grief of their lives as they age and became family, some bonded mates.

Logan and Haiden have been two of the younger members of the Ono-Nai tribe, each has been through unbelievably torturous, traumatic and tragic experiences. Especially Logan, as a compound-raised mage.

Notaro frames out their path to a new romantic relationship , giving it all the gestures and scenes that make it utterly sweet, realistically halting and funny, perfect for their age and yet taking into account, their horrifying backgrounds.

However, we can never forget that there’s something larger looming ahead. All around the , Ono-Nai tribe home, and everywhere in the country, the violence against non-humans is escalating. New attacks from the Rift are rising as well. Everyone is under siege, from humans and aliens alike.

Horrors lie just outside the gate or even doorway.

A Heart To Revitalize Me: The Magic Accounts 4.5 (The Magi Accounts Companion Stories) by Michele Notaro reminds the reader that there is darkness next to the light. For every high, there is a deep lower point awaiting. This is a roller coaster of emotions and a great read.

But the hints the author has left behind are very clear that perhaps the darkest elements are yet to come in the finale.

See you all there.

All the stories, see the lists below, are highly recommended. But they must be read in the order they were written.

The Magi Accounts:

✓ The Scars That Bind Us #1

✓ The Shackles That Hold Us #2

✓ A Purpose That Restores Us #3

✓ A Ruse To Unchain Us #4

◦ Only Unity Will Spare Us #5 – Series Finale on Sept. 20, 2024

The Magi Accounts Companion stories:

✓ Our Hearts That Tie Us: The Magi Accounts Prequel

✓ A Kiss To Revive Me: The Magi Accounts 1.5

✓ A Date to Impress Him: The Magi Accounts 2.5

✓ A Holiday to Sustain Us: A Magi Accounts Holiday

✓ An Embrace To Hearten Me: The Magi Accounts 3.5

✓ A Heart To Revitalize Me: The Magi Accounts 4.5

Buy Link:

A Heart To Revitalize Me: The Magic Accounts 4.5 (The Magi Accounts Companion Stories)

Blurb:

Lately my straight best friend has been very… handsy, which is killing me because I’ve been in love with the idiot for years.

I love my best friend, I always have, but I never wanted him to realize just how much. He’s never seemed to notice before, but since he broke up with his girlfriend, he’s been really clingy. Like way more than I’ve ever seen.

I love it. And it’s killing me.

What I really want is all those cuddles and sweet touches to mean more than they do. I have to keep reminding my heart that everything Haiden is doing is platonic, even if it feels like it isn’t. Unfortunately for me, my stupid heart doesn’t stop hoping for more.

A Heart To Revitalize Me is a MM urban fantasy romance companion novel meant to be read AFTER A Ruse To Unchain Us (The Magi Accounts 4). This is Logan and Haiden’s story and takes place between books 4 and 5 of the main series. It’s the last Magi Accounts Companion Stories novel and is meant to be read as part of the series, not by itself, although the love story is resolved in this book.

The Magi Accounts Companion stories:

✓ Our Hearts That Tie Us: The Magi Accounts Prequel

✓ A Kiss To Revive Me: The Magi Accounts 1.5

✓ A Date to Impress Him: The Magi Accounts 2.5

✓ A Holiday to Sustain Us: A Magi Accounts Holiday

✓ An Embrace To Hearten Me: The Magi Accounts 3.5

✓ A Heart To Revitalize Me: The Magi Accounts 4.5

The Magi Accounts:

✓ The Scars That Bind Us #1

✓ The Shackles That Hold Us #2

✓ A Purpose That Restores Us #3

✓ A Ruse To Unchain Us #4

◦ Only Unity Will Spare Us #5 – Series Finale on Sept. 20, 2024

• Publisher: (December 27, 2023)

• Publication date: December 27, 2023

• Print length: 308 pages

Trigger Warning:

Violence, gore, mentions of past abuse, mentions of past sexual assault (nothing on-page).

— A Heart To Revitalize Me: The Magi Accounts 4.5 (The Magi Accounts Companion Stories) by Michele Notaro