Author Archives: thebloggergirls

Audio Review: Dirty Dining by E.M. Lynley

Reviewed by Morgan 

28188579Title: Dirty Dining
Author: E.M. Lynley
Narrator: Zen Wolfgang
Heroes: Jeremy Linden/Brice Martin
Genre: MM Contemporary
Length: 6 Hours, 20 Minutes
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press
Release Date: November 30, 2015
Available at: Amazon, Audible and iTunes
Add it to your shelf: Goodreads

Blurb: Jeremy Linden’s a PhD student researching an HIV vaccine. He’s always short of money, and when biotech startup PharmaTek reduces funding for his fellowship, he’s tempted to take a job at a men’s dining club as a serving boy. The uniforms are skimpy, and he’s expected to remove an item of clothing after each course. He can handle that, but he soon discovers there’s more on the menu here than fine cuisine. How far will he go to pay his tuition, and will money get in the way when he realizes he’s interested in more from one of his gentlemen?

Brice Martin is an attorney for a Silicon Valley venture capital firm. When he’s asked to take a client to the infamous Dinner Club, he finds himself unexpectedly turned on by the atmosphere and especially by his server, Remy. He senses there’s more to the sexy young man than meets the eye. The paradox fascinates him, and he can’t get enough of Remy.

Their relationship quickly extends beyond the club and sex. But the trust and affection they’ve worked to achieve may crumble when Jeremy discovers Brice’s VC firm is the one that pulled the plug on PharmaTek—and Jeremy’s research grant.
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Categories: 4 Star Ratings, Audio Review, LGBT, Published in 2015 | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Book Review: By Fault by Sasha Kay Riley

Reviewed by Ami

28051961Title: By Fault
Author: Sasha Kay Riley
Series: Anderson Stables #3
Heroes: Vince Anderson/Dustin O’Brien
Genre: MM Contemporary
Length: 140 Pages
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press
Release Date: December 30, 2015
Available at:  Amazon and Barnes & Noble
Add it to your shelf: Goodreads

Blurb:  Over the last year, Vince Anderson and his retired racehorse, Xander, have been competing at the Grand Prix level of the equestrian sport of show jumping. He’s also been enjoying a comfortable relationship with his boyfriend, Dustin O’Brien, who’s there at every show to support Vince as Xander’s groom. Instead of taking the winter off as usual, Vince decides to travel to Florida for one of the biggest shows of the season: the twelve-week-long Winter Equestrian Festival.

While Vince expects the show to be a challenge for himself and Xander, it becomes so much more. As the wins add up, Vince discovers the highs and lows of gaining celebrity status. Demands on his time, his desire to hide his sexuality to protect Dustin, and incredibly tight living quarters all threaten his and Dustin’s relationship. Just when he thinks nothing more could be added to the impending pile of disaster, Vince learns the secrets of Dustin’s past.

Vince must decide what really matters in life and what he truly wants for his future before he loses everything.
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Categories: 3.5 Star Ratings, Book Review, LGBT, Published in 2015 | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Book Review: Sleeping ’til Sunrise by Mary Calmes

Reviewed by Morgan 

27844573Title: Sleeping ’til Sunrise
Author: Mary Calmes
Series: Mangrove Stories #5
Heroes: Essien Dodd/Roark Hammond
Genre: MM Contemporary
Length: 90 Pages
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press
Release Date: December 16, 2015
Available at:  Amazon and Barnes & Noble
Add it to your shelf: Goodreads

Blurb:  Everyone in Mangrove, Florida, knows Fire Chief Essien Dodd is a saint. He took care of his ex-wife until she died, is raising his teenage daughter alone, and is the kind of man who pulls kittens from trees. All in all, the man’s a catch. But Roark Hammond has sworn off getting involved with a man who’s been hurt before because he can’t guarantee he won’t hurt his prospective love again. If only he could get Essien out of his mind long enough to focus on anyone, or anything, else.

Strong emotions are in play. Essien is lonely but determined to focus on Ivy; Ivy wants her father to have a new life so much that, to his horror, she’s trying to find him a man; and Roark is so scared of the present and past, he won’t allow himself to commit. To have any chance of sleeping ’til sunrise and greeting each new day together, Essien and Roark will have to rethink how they’re living their lives and focus on what’s most important.
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Categories: 4 Star Ratings, Book Review, LGBT, Published in 2015 | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Audio Book Review: Christmas Kitsch by Amy Lane

Reviewed by Morgan 

28155477Title: Christmas Kitsch
Author: Amy Lane
Narrator: Nick J. Russo
Heroes: Rusty Baker/Oliver Campbell
Genre: MM Contemporary
Length: 6 Hours, 17 Minutes
Publisher: Riptide Publishing
Release Date: December 9, 2015
Available at:  Amazon and Audible
Add it to your shelf: Goodreads

Blurb:  Sometimes the best thing you can get for Christmas is knowing what you really want.

Rusty Baker is a blond, rich, entitled football player in a high school full of them—just the type of oblivious jock all the bullied kids hate. And he might have stayed that way, except he develops a friendship with out-and-proud Oliver Campbell from the wrong side of the tracks. Rusty thinks the friendship is just pity—Oliver is very bright, and Rusty is very not—but then Oliver kisses him goodbye when Rusty leaves for college, and Rusty is forced to rethink everything he knows about himself.

But even Rusty’s newfound awareness can’t help him survive a semester at Berkeley. He returns home for Thanksgiving break clinging to the one thing he knows to be true: Oliver Campbell is the best thing that’s ever happened to him.

Rusty’s parents disagree, and Rusty finds himself homeless for the holidays. Oliver may not have much money, but he’s got something Rusty has never known: true family. With their help and Oliver’s love, Rusty comes to realize that he may have failed college, but he’ll pass real life with flying rainbow colors.
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Categories: 5 Star Ratings, Audio Review, LGBT, Published in 2015 | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Book Review: Kenai by Caitlin Ricci and A.J. Marcus

Reviewed by Morgan 

28093803Title: Kenai
Authors: Caitlin Ricci and A.J. Marcus
Series: Watchers #1
Heroes: Kenai/Derek
Genre: MM Paranormal
Length: 46 Pages
Publisher: Extasy Books
Release Date: December 8, 2015
Available at:  Amazon and Barnes & Noble
Add it to your shelf: Goodreads

Blurb:  Watchers aren’t supposed to get attached to the shifters they protect, but this mountain lion is getting tired of playing by the rules.

Watchers never get attached. Kenai has heard that rule all his life. He started his training as a small child and his mentor became his world. Now, at nineteen, he’s handling the shifters in the Pacific Northwest on his own. He only interferes with them when he has to—otherwise his life is spent alone. As a mountain lion shifter he doesn’t mind the solitude, but in his visions he sees shifters going off and having adventures, and he desperately wants one for himself. When he meets a bear shifter walking through the woods near his cabin, he’s all in and ready for whatever the bear wants to do.

Derek finds the overly energetic mountain lion annoying. He won’t stop bouncing around, and eventually he has to put Kenai in his place, which sends Kenai darting off. He does want some company though, so he follows Kenai’s trail back to his cabin and invites him to the salmon pools for a feast. He thought everyone knew what went on at those pools, so he’s surprised when Kenai reveals he’s a virgin. That isn’t the only secret this mountain lion is hiding, though, and when Derek finds out Kenai is a Watcher and practically a god to the shifters despite his young age, it might be more than he’s able to handle.

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Review: Kenai is a watcher – a pre-cognitive shifter who arbitrates shifter problems. He’s been made to believe that he can only be a watcher if he lives his life alone.

When he has a dream (the way he gets all his arbitration information) about a bear and screams and salmon – he ends up following a bear shifter up to a salmon pond one day and they end up a couple.

He’s not sure what the screams mean but he’s worried about having a boyfriend.

**

I kind of feel like that was a bit of review Haiku. But that’s what the story felt like for me, too.

Kenai’s lonely. Then he meets someone. They like each other. Various shifter things happen. The end.

I can’t recommend this – though I really liked the premise of a watcher, and I love the idea that our little Kenai finally has a friend- it just didn’t do much for me. It was too all over the place, and I didn’t really get a good feel for Kenai’s bear mate, so I don’t know how’d they do as a couple.

Overall Impression:  It was okay, but not good

*I received a copy of this book from the publisher in return for a fair and honest review.*

Categories: 2 Star Ratings, Book Review, LGBT, Published in 2015 | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Book Review: Soul Struck by Jacob Z. Flores

Reviewed by Morgan 

27842554Title: Soul Struck
Author: Jacob Z. Flores
Series: The Warlock Brothers of Havenridge #3
Heroes: MM Paranormal
Genre: Pierce Blackmoor/Kale Aquilo
Length: 224 Pages
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press
Release Date: December 14, 2015
Available at:  Amazon and Barnes & Noble
Add it to your shelf: Goodreads

Blurb:  Like the electricity he commands, Pierce Blackmoor streaks through life on raw power and pure sexual energy. His conquests on the battlefield and in the bedroom form his foundation, but that bedrock crumbles when his younger brothers’ abilities surpass his own. Pierce finds himself at an all-time low, and clawing his way back to the top becomes his only concern.

Pierce’s plan to reassert his dominance, however, takes a backseat when he wounds Kale Aquilo, an emissary of the Beast King, lord of all shifters.

Kale’s beguiling nature shoots like a lightning bolt straight to Pierce’s soul, and when the soft-spoken Kale relays that a virus is killing his people, Pierce abandons his quest for power to do something he has never done before—protect someone other than himself.

As Kale, Pierce, and his brothers struggle to find the root of the magical virus spreading plague across Aeaea, the shifter island, they face a gauntlet of old and new foes. Soul struck, Pierce and Kale must uncover the truth behind the conspiracy gathering in the shadows.
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Categories: 5 Star Ratings, Book Review, LGBT, Published in 2015 | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Book Review: Loving Blitz by Charlie Cochet

Guest Reviewed by  Gyn

26251259Title: Loving Blitz
Author: Charlie Cochet
Series: North Pole City Tales #4
Heroes: Cupid/Blitzen
Genre: MM Fantasy
Length: 94 Pages
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press
Release Date: December 16, 2015
Available at:  Amazon and Barnes & Noble
Add it to your shelf: Goodreads

Blurb:  From North Pole City to Winter Wonderland, preparations are underway after a royal announcement sweeps everyone into a frenzy of festivity. At the heart of the celebration are the city’s most beloved elf pilots, the Rein Dears. Once the Big Flight is behind them, the pilots prepare for the royal event. Assigned a special task of finding an Elska rose, Cupid and Blitzen are unaware of how their friendship is about to change forever.

Yet not all that glitters is gold. The sweet, angelic Cupid hides a dark secret, one that threatens to destroy his Rein Dear status, his friends, and the elf who’s captured his heart. It’s up to Blitzen to help Cupid see the light in the darkness and show him that together they can mend broken hearts.
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Categories: 4.5 Star Ratings, Book Review, Guest Reviewer, LGBT, Published in 2015 | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Book Review: Somewhere to Be by Amy Yip

Reviewed by Morgan 

28077418Title: Somewhere to Be
Author: Amy Yip
Series: Sleigh Ride – 2015 Advent Calendar
Heroes: Jamie/Nick
Genre: MM Contemporary
Length: 37 Pages
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press
Release Date: November 30, 2015
Available at:  Amazon and Barnes & Noble
Add it to your shelf: Goodreads

Blurb:  Jamie Goh’s life took a downturn when he lost his job, and a bad relationship left him disillusioned and afraid to trust again. But his friends and family want to see him happy, even if he’s turned off by the idea of dating. Following a Christmas disaster that proves the UK really can’t handle snow, Jamie discovers not everyone is out to hurt him—and loyalty means something to some people—when a sweet guy goes above and beyond for him.

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Categories: 4 Star Ratings, Book Review, LGBT, Published in 2015 | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Book Review: Assassins Are People Too by S.C. Wynne

Reviewed by Morgan 

27887929Title: Assassins Are People Too
Author: S.C. Wynne
Heroes: Marc Francis/Dillon Carter
Genre: MM Contemporary
Length: 105 Pages
Publisher: Loose Id
Release Date: November 25, 2015
Available at:  Amazon and Barnes & Noble
Add it to your shelf: Goodreads

Blurb:  Marc Francis is a paid assassin. Other than that, he’s a pretty normal guy, like how he’s got a little thing for the blond guy in 39D. Just a normal guy with a normal crush, until one of Marc’s enemies tries to get the drop on him in the elevator and then it’s the blonde cutie to the rescue: Dillon Carter, from 39D, sacrifices his potted plant to save him.

Instantly, Marc and Dillon develop a strong sexual connection. As the months go by, while they steal time together, it develops into something more. But Marc doesn’t really do relationships, and Dillon worries Marc will never be able to love him back the way he needs.

Also, when you’re a paid assassin, not everybody is rooting for your happy ever after
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Categories: 4 Star Ratings, Book Review, LGBT, Published in 2015 | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Audio Review: The Half of Us by Cardeno C.

Reviewed by

28116284Title: The Half of Us
Author: Cardeno C.
Narrator: Ezekiel Robinson
Series: Family #4
Heroes: Jason Garcia/Abe Green
Genre: MM Contemporary
Length: 6 hours, 29 minutes
Publisher: The Romance Authors
Release Date: December 4, 2015
Available at: Amazon, Audible and iTunes
Add it to your shelf: Goodreads

Blurb: Short-tempered, arrogant heart surgeon Jason Garcia grew up wanting a close-knit family, but believes he ruined those dreams when he broke up his marriage. The benefit of divorce is having as much random sex as he wants, and it’s a benefit Jason is exploiting when he meets a sweet, shy man at a bar and convinces him to go home for a no-strings-attached night of fun.

Eight years living in Las Vegas hasn’t dimmed Abe Green’s optimism, earnestness, or desire to find the one. When a sexy man with lonely eyes propositions him, Abe decides to give himself a birthday present—one night of spontaneous fun with no thoughts of the future. But one night turns into two and then three, and Abe realizes his heart is involved.

For the first time, Abe feels safe enough with someone he respects and adores to let go of his inhibitions in the bedroom. If Jason can get past his own inhibitions and open his heart and his life to Abe, he might finally find the family he craves.

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Review: I previously reviewed this book here.

We met Abe as one of Spencer’s students in Strong Enough. He’s all grown up now and teaching. One night (his birthday) he allows Jason to pick him up in a bar. (Something he never does!) What was supposed to be one night ends up being another, then another then another until the next thing you know they’re practically living together.

Jason doesn’t do relationships. He’s divorced. A cardiovascular surgeon. Very self-involved and kind of a jerk. When he sees the beautiful Abe in a bar, he has to have him. But one night isn’t enough. And though he usually doesn’t do “seconds,” much less “boyfriends,” something about Abe calls to him and he can’t stay away.

**

This is my second favorite book in this series. I loved Abe so much. He handles Jason so well and yet stands up for himself too.

They have incredible sexy times, but also very sweet and tender feels, too.

I loved Jason’s ex-wife. I was so glad not to see the typical evil ex. She was his friend and helped him to grow. The kids are real, too. Not perfect, but not horrible trolls either.

I highly recommend this book and the entire series. It’s wonderful!

Review – Audio:  Ezekiel Robinson is a new narrator to me. He has a good sense of timing, I really enjoyed his interpretation of Abe – just the right amount of “young and funny”. I didn’t love his Jason as much, but it was still very good, and it was nice to have all the voices differentiated – including the women, with which he did a nice job. The sound quality was good and I enjoyed this audiobook very much. It was a great way to experience this book.

Overall Impression:  It was amazing

*I received a copy of this book from the author in return for a fair and honest review.*

Categories: 5 Star Ratings, Audio Review, LGBT, Published in 2015 | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment