Book Review

Book Review: Fair Isn’t Life by Kaje Harper

Reviewed by Ami 

Title: Fair Isn’t Life
Author: Kaje Harper
Series: States of Love #45
Heroes: Luke/Mason
Genre: MM Contemporary
Length: 148 Pages
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press
Release Date: November 16, 2018
Available at:  Amazon and Barnes & Noble
Add it to your shelf: Goodreads

Blurb: Luke Lafontaine survived the past year by not thinking about the father he lost, the dairy farm he couldn’t save from bankruptcy, or his way of life that vanished with the rap of an auctioneer’s hammer. Cleaning up city folks’ trash at the Minnesota State Fair is just another dead-end job. But at the Fair, surrounded by a celebration of farm life, ambitions he’d given up on and buried deep start to revive. And seeing Mason Bell in the parade—gorgeous, gay, out-of-his-league Mason—stirs other buried dreams.

Mason left his hometown for college in Minneapolis without looking back. Student life is fun, classes are great, gay guys are easy to find, but it’s all a bit superficial. He’s at the State Fair parade route with his band when he realizes a scruffy maintenance worker is Luke, his secret high school crush. Luke should be safely home working on his dad’s farm, not picking up litter. Mason wishes he hadn’t fallen out of touch. He’s an optimist, though, and it’s never too late for second chances. Now he just has to convince Luke.
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Categories: 4 Star Ratings, Ami's Reviews, Book Review, LGBT, Published in 2018 | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Book Review: Beauty, Inc. by Tara Lain

Reviewed by Susan65 

Title: Beauty, Inc.
Author: Tara Lain
Series: The Pennymaker Tales #3
Heroes: Belle/Magnus
Genre: MM Contemporary
Length: 121 Pages
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press
Release Date: June 8, 2016
Available at:  Amazon and Barnes & Noble
Add it to your shelf: Goodreads

Blurb:  Is beauty only skin deep?

Chemist Dr. Robert “Belle” Belleterre loves flowers, green trees, his best friend Judy, and “his baby”: the new face cream he developed to help put his father’s small cosmetics company on the map. Sadly he gets no help from his alcoholic, gambling-addicted father who loses Belle in a poker game to Magnus Strong, the CEO of Beauty, Inc. the largest American cosmetics company—a man infamous for his scarred ugliness.

Belle finds himself uprooted from his home, living in a wildly crazy apartment in New York owned by Mr. Pennymaker, and completely unprepared for his mad attraction to the charismatic Strong. Feeling like a traitor, Belle fights his passion only to see more and more of the goodness and humility hidden by Strong’s ugly face. But when Belle’s family starts manipulating his life again, the odds turn against happiness for beautiful Belle and his beloved beast.
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Categories: 4 Star Ratings, Book Review, LGBT, Published in 2016, Susan65's Reviews | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Book Review: Cops and Comix by Rhys Ford

Reviewed by Nikyta

Title: Cops and Comix
Author: Rhys Ford
Series: Murder and Mayhem 0.5
Heroes: Alex & James
Genre: M/M Contemporary
Length: 38 pages
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press
Release Date: November 16, 2018
Available at: Dreamspinner Press & Amazon
Add it to your shelf: Goodreads

Blurb: It’s all fun and games until someone leaves a dead body on the floor.

Life for comic book store owner Alex Martin usually runs to the mundane. Sure, he has a regular influx of geeks and freaks, but for the most part, it’s a familiar weird. That all changes when he opens up Planet X Comics one morning and finds a corpse in the middle of his shop.

When Detective James Castillo is called in to investigate, Alex is torn between wanting to climb the man like a tree and giving him a wide berth. Luckily for Alex, the handsome detective is just as interested in him—as a suspect in the murder. Continue reading

Categories: 4 Star Ratings, Book Review, LGBT, Nikyta's Reviews, Published in 2018 | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Book Review: Lights and Sirens by Lisa Henry

Reviewed by Susan65

41459129Title: Lights and Sirens
Author: Lisa Henry
Series: Emergency Services #2
Heroes: Hayden Kinsella/Matt Deakin
Genre: MM Contemporary
Length: 231 Pages
Publisher: Lisa Henry
Release Date: September 13, 2018
Available at:  Amazon
Add it to your shelf: Goodreads

Blurb: Paramedic Hayden Kinsella is single and the life of the party. He likes driving fast and saving lives, and he doesn’t do relationships—he does hookups. Except he wouldn’t hook up with copper Matt Deakin if he were the last guy on the planet. Hayden thinks the feeling is mutual . . . until clearing the air leads to a drunken one-night stand, which leads to something neither of them was expecting: a genuine connection.

Police officer Matt Deakin moved to Townsville to take care of his elderly grandfather. In between keeping an eye on Grandad, renovating his house, and the demands of his job, he somehow finds himself in a tentative relationship with Hayden and very slowly gets to know the damaged guy beneath the happy-go-lucky persona.

But the stressors of shift work, fatigue, and constant exposure to trauma threaten to tear Hayden and Matt apart before they’ve even found their footing together. In the high-pressure lives of emergency services workers, it turns out it’s not the getting together part that’s hard, it’s the staying together.
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Categories: 4 Star Ratings, Book Review, LGBT, Published in 2018, Susan65's Reviews | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Book Review: Ruin by Daya Daniels

Reviewed by JustJen

Title: Ruin
Author: Daya Daniels
Series: N/A
Heroes: Ryker/Griffon
Genre: MM Contemporary
Length: 271 Pages
Publisher: Sayad Books
Release Date: September 21, 2018
Available at: Amazon
Add it to your shelf: Goodreads

Blurb:  Ryker

They all think they know me…

I’m just a kid who has no direction and a bunch of problems. I decided long ago that the world can piss off. I’m the only one I need. I keep myself safe. If you don’t rely on anyone, no one can disappoint you. Right?

Griffon

I’m not easily liked.

No, let me be honest. Most people hate me. I’m the a-hole. The boy-man who lives and breathes sarcasm. I have no friends. I barely have any family. And the new people I meet are always charmed, at first, but eventually they steer clear of me too.

Except for the guy sitting across from me.

The one who has bigger problems than you could ever imagine.

Who knew eventually he’d be a problem, for me, and…

One that I want.
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Categories: 4 Star Ratings, Book Review, JustJen's Reviews, LGBT, Published in 2018 | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Book Review: Meik & Sebastian (Obsessed #3) by Quin Perin

Reviewed by JustJen

Title: Meik & Sebastian
Authors: Quin Perin
Series: Obsessed #3
Heroes: Meik & Sebastian
Genre: MM Contemporary
Length: 96 Pages
Publisher: Quin Perin
Release Date: November 1, 2018
Available at: Amazon
Add it to your shelf: Goodreads

Blurb: It was supposed to be the perfect arrangement.

Easy sex in exchange for a cozy bed. Until Meik’s darkest secret scratches the surface, forcing him to cut Sebastian loose in a last-ditch attempt to regain his sanity.

But he’s not the only one with secrets.

All along, the enigmatic musician had something to hide. Will Meik manage to tear himself free or will his obsession and memories batter him into submission?
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Categories: 4 Star Ratings, Book Review, JustJen's Reviews, LGBT, Published in 2018 | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Book Review: A Vampire’s Heart by Kayleigh Sky

Reviewed by Susan65

Title: A Vampire’s Heart
Author: Kayleigh Sky
Series: Ellowyn Found #1
Heroes: Otto/Jessamine
Genre: M/M Paranormal
Length: 399 pages
Publisher: Kiss Drunk Books
Release Date: November 13, 2018
Available at: Amazon
Add it to your shelf: Goodreads

Blurb: Vampires live.

And they hunger… 

Otto Jones, a cop assigned to the seemingly random murder of a vampire, would rather hide out in the nearest bar than waste his time on a dead vamp. He hates the bloodthirsty demons. But when the king of the vampires commands him to work with one of the lesser princes and find the killer, he has no choice.

Prince Jessamine Senera is ready to sacrifice his happiness in a loveless marriage for his family’s benefit… but not yet. He dreams of adventure, excitement, and true love. He lives on romance novels and detective stories and wishes he could drink synthetic blood like every other vampire. But he can’t. He needs human blood to survive and is hated by vampires and humans alike.

As Otto and Jessa draw closer to an entity that doesn’t want to be discovered, Otto finds the heart he thought long dead opening to the romance-loving Jessa. No good can possibly come from falling in love with a vampire, but when a shadowy assailant attacks Jessa, Otto will descend into the darkest pit of the earth to rescue him.

If you like vampires, mythical and urban settings, intense suspense, and happy ever after, then you’ll love this first book in the dark and mysterious Ellowyn Found trilogy!

A Vampire’s Heart is a stand-alone paranormal dystopian noir romance with a satisfying conclusion to the love story and a central mystery that weaves the trilogy together. Continue reading

Categories: 4 Star Ratings, Book Review, LGBT, Published in 2018, Susan65's Reviews | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Book Review: Renewing Forever by Kelly Jensen

Reviewed by Ami

Title: Renewing Forever
Author: Kelly Jensen
Series: This Time Forever #2
Heroes: Frankie & Tommy
Genre: M/M Contemporary
Length: 302 pages
Publisher: Riptide Publishing
Release Date: August 26, 2018
Available at: Riptide Publishing & Amazon
Add it to your shelf: Goodreads

Blurb: A neglected resort, a lost chance at love, and one last chance to renew forever.

Frankie and Tommy once dreamed of traveling the world together. But when seventeen-year-old Frank kissed Tom, their plans ended with a punch to the jaw and Frank leaving town without looking back. Thirty years later, Frank’s successful career as a journalist is interrupted by his uncle’s death and the question of his inheritance—the family resort where his childhood dreams were built. When he returns to the Pocono Mountains, however, he finds a dilapidated lodge and Tommy, the boy he never forgot.

Tom’s been keeping the resort together with spit and glue while caring for Frank’s uncle, Robert—a man he considered father, mentor, and friend—and his aged mother, who he refuses to leave behind. Now Robert is gone, taking Tom’s job with him. And Frank is on the doorstep, wanting to know why Tom is still there and why the old lodge is falling apart.

But before they can rebuild the resort, they’ll have to rebuild their friendship. Only then can they renew the forever they planned all those years ago. Continue reading

Categories: 4 Star Ratings, Ami's Reviews, Book Review, Guest Reviewer, LGBT, Published in 2018 | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Book Review: Lucky Town by Morgan Brice

Reviewed by Nikyta

Title: Lucky Town
Author: Morgan Brice
Series: Badlands #1.5
Heroes: Simon & Vic
Genre: M/M Paranormal
Length: 116 pages
Publisher: Darkwind Press
Release Date: October 29 2018
Available at: Amazon
Add it to your shelf: Goodreads

Blurb: Psychic medium Simon Kincaide and his boyfriend, Myrtle Beach homicide detective Vic D’Amato, find that the only thing more frightening than murder might be navigating their first holiday season as a couple.

A trip back to Pittsburgh to spend Thanksgiving with Vic’s large, exuberant family means dodging old frenemies and a bitter ex-boyfriend. A cold case comes back to haunt Vic when a murdered woman’s ghost begs Simon for justice. Then a new murder back in Myrtle Beach looks suspiciously familiar, and the dead man’s ghost isn’t playing nice. When Simon gets a vision of the next victim before the crime occurs, he realizes that all the murders are supernaturally linked. Catching the murderer will take his psychic sleuthing skills along with Vic’s street smarts to avert a tragedy. Can they do right by ghosts past, present and yet-to-come without ending up in the crosshairs of a killer for Christmas?
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Categories: 4 Star Ratings, Book Review, LGBT, Nikyta's Reviews, Published in 2018 | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Book Review: Seeking Solace by Ari McKay

Reviewed by Ami

Title: Seeking Solace
Author: Ari McKay
Series: The Walker Boys #3;  Dreamspun Desires #69
Heroes: Devin & Paul
Genre: M/M Contemporary
Length: 206 pages
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press
Release Date: November 6, 2018
Available at: Dreamspinner Press & Amazon
Add it to your shelf: Goodreads

Blurb: All hands on deck for a shipboard romance—with a secret.

Like his cousins, Devin Walker aspires to be a chef, but he wants to indulge his wanderlust while feeding his customers, and working a cruise ship seems like the solution. Since he can’t find an opening in the kitchen, he’s happy to start out in a position behind the bar.

While onboard Poseidon’s Pearl, Devin is assigned to shepherd a visiting executive. Paul Bailey is quiet and unassuming, and a car accident that cost him his leg also shattered his confidence. He doesn’t think he’s attractive to other men anymore, and Devin is eager to show him just how wrong he is. Paul has a surprising secret that might sink their passionate affair before it even leaves port.   Continue reading

Categories: 4 Star Ratings, Ami's Reviews, Book Review, Guest Reviewer, LGBT, Published in 2018 | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment