Book Review

Book Review: Lofty Dreams of Earthbound Men by Susan Laine

Reviewed by Nikyta

Title: Lofty Dreams of Earthbound Men
Author: Susan Laine
Series: Isleshire Chronicles #1
Heroes: Obadai & Jules
Genre: M/M Fantasy/Steampunk
Length: 76 pages
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press
Release Date: January 29, 2014
Available at: Dreamspinner Press, Amazon, All Romance eBooks & Barnes and Noble
Add it to your shelf: Goodreads & Booklikes

Blurb: On the night of the summer solstice, Obadai Bashim encounters Jules Sterling, a young engineering sage. Jules is on the run from a ripper, an assassin of the Theocracy who has already killed his master. Open atrocities by rippers are unusual in County Isleshire, where freedom and acceptance reign over prejudice.

However, political instability between the Five Kingdoms and the Divine Theocracy has set the theocrats on a mission to crown religious doctrine over science, and the Sage’s Guild is number one on their eradication list. If Obadai helps, he’ll have a price on his head too, but he can’t abandon Jules.

Escaping the ripper’s clutches is not enough. Jules has a mission of his own: to repair a faulty airship inn about to crash into the fortified township of Dunbruth. Luckily, Obadai has a few magickal secrets up his sleeve. Continue reading

Categories: 2.5 Star Ratings, Book Review, LGBT, Nikyta's Reviews, Published in 2014 | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Book Review: Black Magic by Megan Derr

Reviewed by Nikyta

Title: Black Magic
Author: Megan Derr
Series: Black Magic #1
Heroes: Sorin & Koray (and a few others)
Genre: M/M Fantasy
Length: 90,000 words
Publisher: Less Than Three Press
Release Date: October 31, 2012
Available at: Less Than Three Press, Amazon, All Romance eBooks & Barnes and Noble
Add it to your shelf: Goodreads & Booklikes

Blurb: When High Paladin Sorin discovers the brutally dismembered body of his cousin Alfrey, a much loved priest in the royal palace, he is left baffled as to who would do so terrible a thing to so good a man. But to find the answer to that question, he must cooperate with one of the highly despised necromancers, men who practice black magic, sleep in graveyards and feed upon souls…

The necromancer Koray, however, is far from what he expected. He is beautiful, stubborn, and possessed of a tongue sharp enough to cut down even the High Paladin himself. Koray is also possessed of a strength like nothing Sorin has ever encountered, and the power of the Goddess herself.

It does not take them long to realize that solving a murder is the easiest challenge they must face, and in order to save a kingdom they must first unravel centuries of lies and misunderstandings. Continue reading

Categories: 5 Star Ratings, Book Review, LGBT, Nikyta's Reviews, Published in 2012 | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Book Review: The Red Sheet by Mia Kerick

Reviewed by Heather C

20619717Title: The Red Sheet
Author: Mia Kerick
Hero: Bryan Dennison
Genre: M/M Young Adult, Contemporary
Length: 57,000 words
Publisher: Harmony Ink Press
Release Date: February 21, 2014
Available at: Harmony Ink Press, Amazon, All Romance eBooks & Barnes and Noble
Add it to your shelf: Goodreads & Booklikes

Blurb: One October morning, high school junior Bryan Dennison wakes up a different person—helpful, generous, and chivalrous—a person whose new admirable qualities he doesn’t recognize. Stranger still is the urge to tie a red sheet around his neck like a cape.

Bryan soon realizes this compulsion to wear a red cape is accompanied by more unusual behavior. He can’t hold back from retrieving kittens from tall trees, helping little old ladies cross busy streets, and defending innocence anywhere he finds it.

Shockingly, at school, he realizes he used to be a bully. He’s attracted to the former victim of his bullying, Scott Beckett, though he has no memory of Scott from before “the change.” Where he’d been lazy in academics, overly aggressive in sports, and socially insecure, he’s a new person. And although he can recall behaving egotistically, he cannot remember his motivations.

Everyone, from his mother to his teachers to his “superjock” former pals, is shocked by his dramatic transformation. However, Scott Beckett is not impressed by Bryan’s newfound virtue. And convincing Scott he’s genuinely changed and improved, hopefully gaining Scott’s trust and maybe even his love, becomes Bryan’s obsession. Continue reading

Categories: 4.5 Star Ratings, Book Review, Heather C's Reviews, LGBT, Published in 2014 | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Book Review: A Cupid’s Wager by Deanna Wadsworth

Reviewed by Nikyta

Title: A Cupid’s Wager
Author: Deanna Wadsworth
Heroes: Lio & Ethan
Genre: M/M Paranormal Fantasy
Length: 70 pages
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press
Release Date: February 13, 2014
Available at: Dreamspinner Press, Amazon, All Romance eBooks & Barnes and Noble
Add it to your shelf: Goodreads & Booklikes

Blurb: The name’s Lio, and I’m a cupid working for the Gay Division of the Inter-Dimensional Association of Cupids. An Aztec god, whose modern name, Ethan, doesn’t make him any less scary, just busted me shooting a closeted human with a gay lust arrow. I might find him sexy with all those tattoos and piercings, if I didn’t have a rule against getting it on with other supernaturals—especially ones working for the Straight Division. Now, to save my butt I’ll have to strike a bargain with this tough god. But what I didn’t see coming was my little wager not only risks my career, but places my broken heart completely in Ethan’s hands.

A part of the “A Valentine Rainbow” set of 14 holiday stories. Continue reading

Categories: 3 Star Ratings, Book Review, LGBT, Nikyta's Reviews, Published in 2014 | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Book Review: Purly Gates by Vastine Bondurant

Reviewed by Heather C

13618145Title: Purly Gates
Author: Vastine Bondurant
Heroes: Purly Gates & Lucky Cleary
Genre: M/M Historical Romance
Length: 52 pages
Publisher: LIG Publishing
Release Date: April 24, 2012
Available at: Amazon & All Romance eBooks
Add it to your shelf: Goodreads & Booklikes

Blurb: A lonely stretch of beach becomes a hiding place for two men who, when their paths cross, are determined not to be ships just passing in the night.

Purlman “Purly” Gates—dark, brooding, mysterious, hiding from his past and the hefty price on his head—is hopelessly attracted to the young man who strolls the beach every morning. At the risk of his own exposure and its deadly consequences, Purly succumbs to his desire and sets out to lure the beautiful enigma into his lair.

Lucky Cleary wants the swarthy stranger who watches him from the shadows of the cottage deck, and his morning promenades finally pay off when the man steps out onto the beach and into Lucky’s life in a move to bring their paths together.

But Lucky has a secret as well—a past mistake following close behind him, promising certain death if it catches up with him.

When each man discovers the other’s identity, the truth forms a powerful bond between them and fans the flame of their passion.

But is the meeting of these two lonely souls a beautiful destiny or merely a cruel twist of fate in which their desire is nothing more than the kiss of death for them both? Continue reading

Categories: 4 Star Ratings, Book Review, Heather C's Reviews, LGBT, Published in 2012 | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Book Review: Red Dirt Heart by N.R. Walker

Reviewed by JustJen

Title: Red Dirt Heart
Author: N.R. Walker
Heroes: Charlie/Travis
Genre: M/M Contemporary
Length: 162 pages
Publisher: Self-published
Release Date: February 20, 2014
Available at: Smashwords, Amazon & All Romance eBooks
Add it to your shelf: Goodreads & Booklikes

Blurb:  Welcome to Sutton Station: One of the world’s largest working farms in the middle of Australia – where if the animals and heat don’t kill you first, your heart just might.

Charlie Sutton runs Sutton Station the only way he knows how; the way his father did before him. Determined to keep his head down and his heart in check, Charlie swears the red dirt that surrounds him – isolates him – runs through his veins.

American agronomy student Travis Craig arrives at Sutton Station to see how farmers make a living from one of the harshest environments on earth. But it’s not the barren, brutal and totally beautiful landscapes that capture him so completely.

It’s the man with the red dirt heart.

Please note: This book is set in Australia, using Australian English and lingo. Continue reading

Categories: 4.5 Star Ratings, Book Review, JustJen's Reviews, LGBT, Published in 2014 | Tags: , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Early Review: The Oracle’s Hatchling by Mell Eight

Reviewed by Nikyta

Title: The Oracle’s Hatchling
Author: Mell Eight
Series: Oracle #2
Heroes: Ling & Rion
Genre: M/M Fantasy
Length: 20,000 words
Publisher: Less Than Three Press
Release Date: March 5, 2014
Available at: Less Than Three Press & All Romance eBooks
Add it to your shelf: Goodreads

Blurb: Ling is hated because his birth killed his mother. He hopes that testing will ease his troubles—either his rank will be so low that everyone forgets about him, or it will be so high they’ll be forced to respect him. What he doesn’t expect is to walk out of the testing chamber with an egg emblazoned on his back. Laughed out of the Monastery, Ling hides himself in Altnoia, where he becomes embroiled in a plot to overthrow King Edan and the Oracle who supports him.

The ringleader behind the plot is Prince Damarion, son of the evil despot who forced King Edan to flee in the first place—but his motives are not anything that Ling could have anticipated. Neither could he anticipate a friendship, or what that friendship could become, and the choices it would force him to make.

Continue reading

Categories: 4 Star Ratings, Book Review, LGBT, Nikyta's Reviews, Published in 2014 | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Book Review: Halestorm by Mathew Ortiz

Reviewed by JustJen

Title: Halestorm
Author: Mathew Ortiz
Series: Love and Salvage #3
Heroes:  Hale/Bumper
Genre: M/M Paranormal
Length: 139 pages
Publisher: Self-Published
Release Date: March 1, 2014
Available at: Amazon
Add it to your shelf: Goodreads

Blurb: Cursed, he must be cursed. Everything about Bumper Gaither drew Hale like a moth to a flame. When Bumper walked into the room, time stood still for Hale, and it took all he had not to scale Mount Bumper. Every fiber of Hale’s being wanted to throw himself into the big bear’s arms. There was one problem. Well not a problem, exactly. How was Hale gonna tell Bumper, that he was a witc…

… ch way was UP! Bumper’s head spun, his chest grew tight, all at the sight of the spitfire named Hale McAvoy. Their blistering kiss at his Aunt and Uncle’s barbeque left him wanting more, a lot more. However, despite his best efforts, Hale steadfastly refused to go out with him, despite the obvious attraction. That only made Bumper more determined. Like a bulldog with a bone, Bumper was not letting go. So why was Hale so hesitant to go out with him?

*This book is a prequel to the Oswald Witches coming out in the coming months. Continue reading

Categories: 4.5 Star Ratings, Book Review, JustJen's Reviews, LGBT, Published in 2014 | Tags: , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Book Review: Crow and Firefly by Sam C. Leonhard

Reviewed by Nikyta

Title: Crow and Firefly
Author: Sam C. Leonhard
Series: Crow and Firefly #1
Heroes: Ari & Roulfe
Genre: M/M Fantasy
Length: 78 pages
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press
Release Date: October 31, 2012
Available at: Dreamspinner Press, Amazon, All Romance eBooks & Barnes and Noble
Add it to your shelf: Goodreads & Booklikes

Blurb: The laws of man and nature are harsh and decisive: Unwed mothers are not allowed to raise their children, and shapehifters must wed and consummate the marriage to satisfy the magic that would otherwise render them beasts forever upon the morning of their twenty-third birthday.

With the life of his sister and newborn nephew at stake, shapeshifter Ari is trapped in a castle and compelled to accept a situation he’d dreaded: he is forced to marry Lord Dagur, a man he’s never met. A man called “The Cruel.” A man he fears, and not just because he fancies someone else. Continue reading

Categories: 3.5 Star Ratings, Book Review, LGBT, Nikyta's Reviews, Published in 2012 | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Book Review: The Beginning Of Us by Sarah Brooks

Guest Reviewed by Monica

Title: The Beginning Of Us
Author: Sarah Brooks
Heroines: Tara & Eliza
Genre: Lesbian Contemporary Romance
Length: 120 pages
Publisher: Riptide Publishing
Release Date: January 27, 2014
Available at: Riptide Publishing, Amazon, All Romance eBooks & Barnes and Noble
Add it to your shelf: Goodreads & Booklikes

Blurb: Love is always complicated and sometimes blind and usually that makes for your best type of love story.

College is rough for almost everyone, it’s a time to figure out who you are and what you stand for all while getting  an education. The instant I began to read I fell in love with Tara’s words of longing and desperation. She is reaching out to the love of her life and willing her to come back and bring her an explanation for her absence. While in this state of longing and heartbreak she begins to tell a story of self discovery and a love that breaks all molds. Being the good Iowa girl that she is with her steady boyfriend and good grades she walks into a classroom one day and learns that sometimes love isn’t planned and what expected. Falling in love with someone is complicated but worse when they are a women and your new professor.  Continue reading

Categories: 3 Star Ratings, Book Review, Guest Reviewer, LGBT, Published in 2014 | Tags: , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment