Book Review

Book Review: Locked in Silence by Sloane Kennedy

Reviewed by Susan65

Title: Locked in Silence
Author: Sloane Kennedy
Series: Pelican Bay #1
Heroes: Nolan Grainger/Dallas Kent
Genre: MM Contemporary
Length: 284 Pages
Publisher: Self-Published
Release Date: September 3, 2017
Available at: Amazon and Barnes & Noble
Add it to your shelf: Goodreads

Blurb: I’ve spent years hoping someone would finally hear me. It’s easier not to try anymore…
Ten years after leaving his small Minnesota hometown in his rearview mirror for what Nolan Grainger was sure would be the last time, life has decided to throw the talented musician a curveball and send him back to the town he lived in but was never really home.

At twenty-eight, Nolan has traveled the world as a successful concert violinist with some of the best symphonies in the country. But success breeds envy, and when Nolan’s benefactor and lover decides Nolan has flown high enough, he cruelly clips Nolan’s wings. The betrayal and ensuing scandal leaves the violinist’s career in shambles and with barely enough money to start fresh somewhere beyond his vindictive ex’s powerful reach. But just as he’s ready to get his life back on track, Nolan gets the call he’s been dreading.

After a stroke leaves his father a partial invalid, duty-bound Nolan returns to Pelican Bay and a life he’s spent years trying to forget. When he’s forced to use the last of his own money to keep from losing the family home, desperation has him turning to the one man he’d hoped never to see again…

Even if I could speak, there wouldn’t be anyone there to listen…
Pelican Bay’s golden boy, Dallas Kent, had the quintessential perfect life. Smart, gorgeous, and popular, the baseball phenom was well on his way to a life filled with fame and fortune. But more importantly, he had a one-way ticket out of Pelican Bay and far away from the family who used love as currency and whose high expectations were the law of the land. But a stormy night, sharp highway curve and one bad decision changed everything, leaving Dallas with nothing.

Because the accident that took his parents, his future and his crown as the boy who could do no wrong, also stole his voice.

Despised for the horrific wreck that ended the lives of two of Pelican Bay’s most respected residents, Dallas has retreated to a secluded stretch of land where he’s found refuge in a menagerie of unwanted animals that don’t care that he once had the world at his feet or that he’ll never speak again.

But when the quiet, bookish boy he wasn’t allowed to notice in school suddenly reappears ten years later at Dallas’s wildlife rehab center in desperate need of a job, Dallas is thrust back into a world he’s worked hard to escape.

Dallas’s silence was supposed to send Nolan scurrying, but what if Nolan ends up being the one person who finally hears him?

Will two men who’ve been fleeing from the past finally come home to Pelican Bay for good or will the silence drive them apart forever?
Continue reading

Categories: 4.5 Star Ratings, Book Review, LGBT, Published in 2017, Susan65's Reviews | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Book Review: Tramps and Thieves by Rhys Ford

Reviewed by Nikyta

Title: Tramps and Thieves
Author: Rhys Ford
Series: Murder and Mayhem #2
Heroes: Dante and Rook
Genre: M/M Contemporary Mystery
Length: 210 pages
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press
Release Date: September 18, 2017
Available at: Dreamspinner Press & Amazon
Add it to your shelf: Goodreads

Blurb: Whoever said blood was thicker than water never stood in a pool of it.

Retiring from stealing priceless treasures seemed like a surefire way for Rook Stevens to stay on the right side of the law. The only cop in his life should have been his probably-boyfriend, Los Angeles Detective Dante Montoya, but that’s not how life—his life—is turning out. Instead, Rook ends up not only standing in a puddle of his cousin Harold’s blood but also being accused of Harold’s murder… and sleeping with Harold’s wife.

For Dante, loving the former thief means his once-normal life is now a sea of chaos, especially since Rook seems incapable of staying out of trouble—or keeping trouble from following him home. When Rook is tagged as a murder suspect by a narrow-focused West LA detective, Dante steps in to pull his lover out of the quagmire Rook’s landed in.

When the complicated investigation twists around on them, the dead begin to stack up, forcing the lovers to work together. Time isn’t on their side, and if they don’t find the killer before another murder, Dante will be visiting Rook in his prison cell—or at his grave.
Continue reading

Categories: 5 Star Ratings, Book Review, LGBT, Nikyta's Reviews, Published in 2017 | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Book Review: Off the Beaten Path by Cari Z.

Reviewed by Ami

Title: Off the Beaten Path
Author: Cari Z.
Heroes: Ward Johannsen/Henry Dormer
Genre: MM Paranormal
Length: 200 Pages
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press
Release Date: September 18, 2017
Available at:  Amazon and Barnes & Noble
Add it to your shelf: Goodreads

Blurb:  When Ward Johannsen’s little girl Ava shifted into a werewolf, she was taken into custody by the feds and shipped off to the nearest pack, all ties between father and daughter severed. Ward burned every bridge he had discovering her location, and then almost froze to death in the Colorado mountains tracking her new pack down. And that’s just the beginning of his struggle.

Henry Dormer is an alpha werewolf and an elite black ops soldier who failed his last mission. He returns home, hoping for some time to recuperate and help settle the pack’s newest member, a little pup named Ava who can’t shift back to her human form. Instead he meets Ward, who refuses to leave his daughter without a fight. The two men are as different as night and day, but their respect for each other strikes a spark of mutual interest that quickly grows into a flame. They might find something special together—love, passion, and even a family—if they can survive trigger-happy pack guardians, violent werewolf politics, and meddling government agencies that are just as likely to get their alpha soldiers killed as bring them home safely.
Continue reading

Categories: 4 Star Ratings, Ami's Reviews, Book Review, LGBT, Published in 2017 | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Book Review: Once Bitten by Shannon West and T.S. McKinney

Reviewed by JustJen

Title: Once Bitten
Authors: Shannon West and T.S. McKinney
Series: A Darker Hollow #2
Heroes: Mason/Finn/Valerian
Genre: MMM Paranormal
Length: 189 Pages
Publisher: Painted Hearts Publishing
Release Date: September 5, 2017
Available at: Amazon
Add it to your shelf: Goodreads

Blurb: When Mason comes back to Dark Hollows, he doesn’t quite get the homecoming he’d hoped for.

Mason, who has become something not quite wolf and not quite vampire, has new powers of his own that he’s still trying to figure out, not to mention a complicated relationship with his new mates. He knows his brother Jax will be shocked to find out he’s still alive, and he’d expected some resistance to his new mates, Finn and Valerian, but not the open hostility he meets when they arrive.

The Dark Hollow alphas, Marco and Cade, are not at all pleased to have another alpha like Finn in their territory. And as for the beautiful vampire, Valerian, only Mason’s sudden display of his startling new powers forces an uneasy and tentative truce among them. Meanwhile Mason is still struggling to forgive Finn and Valerian for what they did to him in the past, and his mates are growing impatient for him to make a decision about their lives together.

The sudden reappearance of an ancient, evil vampire named Cassius makes the entire pack hyper-vigilant and uneasy. When Mason and Finn discover the creature is Valerian’s sire, they fear Cassius’s influence over him.

Betrayal, infighting, and even some romance. The next rousing adventure in Dark Hollows is here.
Continue reading

Categories: 4 Star Ratings, Book Review, JustJen's Reviews, LGBT, Published in 2017 | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Book Review: Survival Game by Susan Mac Nicol

Reviewed by Susan65

Title: Survival Game
Author: Susan Mac Nicol
Series: Men of London #9
Heroes: Eric Kirby/Kyle Tripper
Genre: MM Contemporary
Length: 172 Pages
Publisher: Boroughs Publishing
Release Date: September 7, 2017
Available at: Amazon and Barnes & Noble
Add it to your shelf: Goodreads

Blurb: Since his true love died, paramedic Eric Kirby has been living a half life, but when he meets purple-haired Kyle Tripper, Eric’s heart is jolted into a whole new rhythm.

HANDLE…

Kyle Tripper has led an interesting life. Currently the manager of London’s famous Club Delish, he used to be a croupier extraordinaire in Las Vegas. But not everything in that life was so glamorous; his ex was a piece of work. Now gun-shy, Kyle hopes there is someone special out there for him, and secretly wishes it’s luscious paramedic, Eric Kirby.

WITH CARE

Every day Eric Kirby goes through the motions. Yeah, he saves lives, and, sure, he makes a difference, but he doesn’t feel it anymore – not since he lost his one true. But, when he meets wild, flamboyant Kyle Tripper and learns there’s a skittish, apprehensive man beneath the bold façade, the best of Eric’s protective nature kicks in, and opens his heart to a new love.
Continue reading

Categories: 4 Star Ratings, Book Review, LGBT, Published in 2017, Susan65's Reviews | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Dual Book Review: Hush by Tal Bauer

Reviewed by JustJen and Susan65

Title: Hush
Author: Tal Bauer
Heroes: Tom Brewer/Mike Lucciano
Genre: MM Contemporary
Length: 672 Pages
Publisher: Tal Bauer
Release Date: July 12, 2017
Available at: Amazon
Add it to your shelf: Goodreads

Blurb: A federal judge running from the truth.
A U.S. marshal running from his past.
A trial that can plunge the world into war.

Federal Judge Tom Brewer is finally putting the pieces of his life back together. In the closet for twenty-five long years, he’s climbing out slowly, and, with the hope of finding a special relationship with the stunning Mike Lucciano, U.S. Marshal assigned to his DC courthouse. He wants to be out and proud, but he can’t erase his own past, and the lessons he learned long ago.

But a devastating terrorist attack in the heart of DC, and the subsequent capture and arrest of the terrorist, leads to a trial that threatens to expose the dark underbelly of America’s national security.

As Russia beats the drums of war, intent on seeking revenge, and the United States struggles to contain the storm before it races out of control, secrets and lies, past and present, collide in Judge Tom Brewer’s courtroom. With the world’s attention fixed on Tom and this case, he suddenly discovers he may be the only person who can put everything together in time to stop the spark of a new world war.
Continue reading

Categories: 4.5 Star Ratings, Book Review, JustJen's Reviews, LGBT, Published in 2017, Susan65's Reviews | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Book Review: WILD by Adrienne Wilder

Reviewed by JustJen

Title: WILD
Author: Adrienne Wilder
Heroes: August Vallory/Keegan Brooks
Genre: MM Contemporary
Length: 326 Pages
Publisher: Adrienne Wilder
Release Date: September 1, 2017
Available at: Amazon
Add it to your shelf: Goodreads

Blurb: August Vallory had it all. A modeling career, a man he loved, and the extended family he’d acquired in the business. Then the world he knew was torn away when the plane he was on crashed en route to a photo shoot.

Lost in the Alaskan wilderness, August doesn’t stand a chance.

No sane man would choose to live in the Alaskan bush unless he had something to hide. And Keegan Brooks has secrets darker than night, more dangerous than wolves, more brutal than an Alaskan winter.
Every day was a fight for his life until he stumbled upon a downed plane with a lone survivor. Now it’s no longer just Keegan’s life teetering on the edge of survival.

It’s his heart.
Continue reading

Categories: 4.5 Star Ratings, Book Review, JustJen's Reviews, LGBT, Published in 2017 | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Book Review: Earning His Trust by Alicia Nordwell

Reviewed by Ami

Title: Earning His Trust
Author: Alicia Nordwell
Heroes: Evin/Ben
Genre: MM Contemporary
Length: 112 Pages
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press
Release Date: September 6, 2017
Available at:  Amazon and Barnes & Noble
Add it to your shelf: Goodreads

Blurb: Evin lost the only two men he ever loved. But he might get a second chance with one of them—if he’s willing to take the risk.

Following the death of his husband, Evin is living in Portland and raising the infant son they had through a surrogate. Six-month-old Micah is his life, and if it means no time for activities or friendships beyond his minuscule support network, that’s a sacrifice Evin is willing to make. When he suffers a burn baking teething biscuits, the last person Evin expects to encounter in the ER is Ben, his lover from college—and the man who left him without a word of explanation.

Ben knows it won’t be easy to earn Evin’s trust and prove he’s not the same man Evin once knew, but he can’t bear to watch Evin struggle to care for Micah, hurting and alone. He wants back in Evin’s life, as a friend and hopefully more, but Evin’s heart is fragile, and the years have changed him too.
Continue reading

Categories: 2.5 Star Ratings, Ami's Reviews, Book Review, LGBT, Published in 2017 | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Book Review: The Palisade by Rosalind Abel

Reviewed by Susan65

Title: The Palisade
Author: Rosalind Abel
Series: Lavender Shores #1
Heroes: Joel Rhodes/Andrew Kelly
Genre: MM Contemporary
Length: 230 Pages
Publisher: Wings of Ink Publications, LLC
Release Date: June 20, 2017
Available at: Amazon
Add it to your shelf: Goodreads

Blurb: Confident businessman Joel Rhodes sees the small California town of Lavender Shores as nothing more than a business opportunity and a final stepping stone to the position he’s been working toward his entire life. It was supposed to be just one night in town to close the deal, and sleeping with one of the local men, no matter how gorgeous, meant nothing more than a few hours of fun.

Andrew Kelly is perfectly content with the life he has in his hometown. So much so that the only thing missing is someone to share it with. Going to bed with a tourist was never meant to be the answer to his dreams, just a beautiful distraction. He could get back to looking for Mr. Right the next day.

Both Andrew’s and Joel’s worlds are turned upside down when a few hours of pleasure get extended to a couple of days. Even that shouldn’t have been a big deal. You can’t fall in love in that amount of time. That isn’t how it works. However, if destinies collide, a few short days may be all it takes to find your soul mate. Even so, when secrets and motivations get tangled, fate may do nothing more than leave two hearts in pieces.
Continue reading

Categories: 4 Star Ratings, Book Review, LGBT, Published in 2017, Susan65's Reviews | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Book Review: Etched in Bone by Anne Bishop

Reviewed by Nikyta

Title: Etched in Bone
Author: Anne Bishop
Series: The Others #5
Hero/Heroine: Meg & Simon
Genre: M/F Urban Fantasy
Length: 407 pages
Publisher: Roc
Release Date: March 7, 2017
Available at: Amazon
Add it to your shelf: Goodreads

Blurb: After a human uprising was brutally put down by the Elders—a primitive and lethal form of the Others—the few cities left under human control are far-flung. And the people within them now know to fear the no-man’s-land beyond their borders—and the darkness…

As some communities struggle to rebuild, Lakeside Courtyard has emerged relatively unscathed, though Simon Wolfgard, its wolf shifter leader, and blood prophet Meg Corbyn must work with the human pack to maintain the fragile peace. But all their efforts are threatened when Lieutenant Montgomery’s shady brother arrives, looking for a free ride and easy pickings.

With the humans on guard against one of their own, tensions rise, drawing the attention of the Elders, who are curious about the effect such an insignificant predator can have on a pack. But Meg knows the dangers, for she has seen in the cards how it will all end—with her standing beside a grave.
Continue reading

Categories: 5 Star Ratings, Book Review, M/F, Nikyta's Reviews, Published in 2017 | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment