Book Review

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

Book Review: Not the Best Day by Brynn Stein

Reviewed by Nikyta

NottheBestDayTitle: Not the Best Day
Author: Brynn Stein
Series: Sleigh Ride – 2015 Advent Calendar
Heroes: Henry & Clint
Genre: M/M Contemporary
Length: 31 pages
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press
Release Date: December 1, 2015
Available at: Dreamspinner PressAmazon
Add it to your shelf: Goodreads

Blurb: Henry hates Christmas shopping. Hates it with a passion. But here he is, downtown shopping two days before Christmas. It would almost be bearable except for the jerk in the trapper hat and plaid scarf who keeps turning up like a bad penny, apparently with no other goal in life than to make Henry’s already crappy day even crappier. Henry doesn’t know what’s up with the guy, but Henry wishes he’d just go away. That doesn’t seem to be in the cards, however. In a day full of surprises, the biggest is yet to come.
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Categories: 3.5 Star Ratings, Book Review, LGBT, Nikyta's Reviews, 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: A Trip to Remember by Meg Harding

Reviewed by Nikyta

TripToRemember[A]Title: A Trip to Remember
Author: Meg Harding
Series: Sleigh Ride – 2015 Advent Calendar
Heroes: Colin & Logan
Genre: M/M Contemporary
Length: 55 pages
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press
Release Date: December 1, 2015
Available at: Dreamspinner Press & Amazon
Add it to your shelf: Goodreads

Blurb: Colin wants to spend the Christmas holiday with his family, but a blizzard settles in and his flight is cancelled. Unwilling to accept this, he strikes out on his own and crashes his car. Where he ends up might be better than where he was going, though.

Logan was content to wait out the blizzard and spend the holiday alone, but when a frozen-solid Colin ends up on his doorstep, he’s not going to turn him away. He takes him in and shows him Christmas spent with a stranger really doesn’t have to be awkward after all.
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Categories: 4 Star Ratings, Book Review, LGBT, Nikyta's Reviews, Published in 2015 | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Book Review: Careened by Bey Deckard

Reviewed by JustJen

28274586Title: Careened
Author: Bey Deckard
Series: Baal’s Heart #3.5
Heroes: Tom/Jon/Baltsaros
Genre: MMM Fantasy
Length: 42 Pages
Publisher: Bey Deckard
Release Date: December 22, 2015
Available at: Amazon
Add it to your shelf: Goodreads

Blurb:  A Baal’s Heart short, following the events in Fated: Blood and Redemption.

Plagued by terrible dreams, Jon begins to distance himself from Baltsaros and Tom. Perhaps a little holiday cheer is just the thing to help the three of them find common ground again.
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Categories: 5 Star Ratings, Book Review, JustJen's Reviews, 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: Hapless by Therese Woodson

Reviewed by Nikyta

HaplessTitle: Hapless
Author: Therese Woodson
Series: Sleigh Ride – 2015 Advent Calendar
Heroes: Ty & Micah
Genre: M/M Contemporary
Length: 49 pages
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press
Release Date: December 1, 2015
Available at: Dreamspinner Press & Amazon
Add it to your shelf: Goodreads

Blurb: All Ty wants is to propose to his boyfriend, Micah, before Christmas Eve. He has the perfect ring, the perfect setting, and the perfect plan, but the universe has other ideas. A sprained ankle, a choking woman, and a crying sister are just the tip of the iceberg as Ty stumbles toward his happy ever after. Now, as Christmas Eve looms before him, he has to figure out how to ask the biggest question of his life without his perfectionism getting in the way or he might lose the person he wants to spend the holiday, and every day after, with.
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Categories: 4.5 Star Ratings, Book Review, LGBT, Nikyta's Reviews, 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: Worth the Wait by Caitlin Ricci & Cari Z.

Reviewed by Nikyta

WorththeWaitTitle: Worth the Wait
Author: Caitlin Ricci & Cari Z.
Series: Sleigh Ride – 2015 Advent Calendar
Heroes: Tate & Brandon
Genre: M/M Contemporary
Length: 31 pages
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press
Release Date: December 1, 2015
Available at: Dreamspinner Press & Amazon
Add it to your shelf: Goodreads

Blurb: When Tate promises his niece Addie he’ll get a book signed by her favorite author, he never expects to end up in a line four blocks long with sleet coming down around him. It’s three days until Christmas and he’s cold and miserable, but Addie will be devastated if he gives up.

A cute guy who offers him an umbrella is just the encouragement Tate needs to stick it out, especially when Brandon brings him something hot to drink. But the signing ends before Tate can get to the front of the line, and Tate is sure he’s ruined Christmas for his niece. Luckily Brandon gets him in to see the author, who happens to be his mother.

A simple thank you isn’t enough for Tate, and neither he nor Brandon wants to end things there. For two men unused to such an instant mutual attraction, the Christmas season just got a little more merry.

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