Published in 2013

Kim Fielding Week Review: The Gig

Reviewed by JustJen

17877356Title: The Gig
Author: Kim Fielding
Series: Speechless #2
Heroes:  Travis/Drew
Genre: M/M Contemporary
Length: 24 pages
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press
Release Date: May 22, 2013
Available Free at: Dreamspinner Press & All Romance eBooks
Add it to your shelf: Goodreads

Blurb: An accident in Drew Clifton’s past left the former novelist with aphasia, unable to communicate through either speech or writing. Through sheer strength of will, he built a quiet but lonely life for himself. But now he’s fallen in love with Travis Miller.

Travis has his own issues—a permanent eye injury and unemployment. But he’s determined to help Drew find ways to engage and succeed again in the wider world, and a guitar-playing gig at a local coffeehouse seems like a good start.

Dylan Warner and Chris Nock happen to be in the audience that evening, and they have a few niggling problems of their own. Perhaps a chance meeting will provide solutions that might benefit all of them.

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Categories: 4 Star Ratings, Author Week, Book Review, JustJen's Reviews, LGBT, Published in 2013 | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Challenge Week Review: The Body on the Beach by L.J. LaBarthe

Reviewed by Heather C

17377221Title: The Body on the Beach
Author: L.J. LaBarthe
Hero: Billy Liang
Genre: M/M Historical Mystery
Length: 25,500 words
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press
Release Date: March 13, 2013
Available at: Dreamspinner Press, Amazon, All Romance eBooks and Barnes & Noble
Add it to your shelf: Goodreads

Blurb: In 1920, a body is found on Brighton Beach, Adelaide. Billy Liang has been living a respectable life as the representative of Adelaide’s Chinese community—with his lover, lawyer Tom Williams, discreetly at his side. When evidence seems to implicate the people Billy represents, he steps up to help solve the murder. He and Tom deal with illegal opium dens, fantan games and gambling, racism, and being shot at. Though Billy’s family accepts the love he and Tom share, Australia’s laws against sodomy and homosexuality pose a constant danger. Now, the body on the beach brings a whole new threat to Billy and Tom’s life in Adelaide.  Continue reading

Categories: Book Review, Did Not Finish, Heather C's Reviews, LGBT, Published in 2013 | Tags: , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Challenge Week Review: The Magpie Lord by K.J. Charles

Reviewed by Nikyta

The Magpie Lord (A Charm of Magpies, #1)Title: The Magpie Lord
Author: K.J. Charles
Series: A Charm of Magpies #1
Heroes: Lucien Vaudrey/”Crane” & Stephen Day
Genre: M/M Historical Paranormal
Length: 178 pages
Publisher: Samhain Publishing
Release Date: September 3, 2013
Available at: Samhain Publishing & Amazon
Add it to your shelf: Goodreads

Blurb: A lord in danger. A magician in turmoil. A snowball in hell.

Exiled to China for twenty years, Lucien Vaudrey never planned to return to England. But with the mysterious deaths of his father and brother, it seems the new Lord Crane has inherited an earldom. He’s also inherited his family’s enemies. He needs magical assistance, fast. He doesn’t expect it to turn up angry.

Magician Stephen Day has good reason to hate Crane’s family. Unfortunately, it’s his job to deal with supernatural threats. Besides, the earl is unlike any aristocrat he’s ever met, with the tattoos, the attitude…and the way Crane seems determined to get him into bed. That’s definitely unusual.

Soon Stephen is falling hard for the worst possible man, at the worst possible time. But Crane’s dangerous appeal isn’t the only thing rendering Stephen powerless. Evil pervades the house, a web of plots is closing round Crane, and if Stephen can’t find a way through it—they’re both going to die.

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Categories: 4.5 Star Ratings, Book Review, LGBT, Nikyta's Reviews, Published in 2013 | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Book Review: Pretty Poison by Kari Gregg

Reviewed by Susan65

19173721Title: Pretty Poison
Author: Kari Gregg
Heroes: Noah and Wade
Genre: M/M Paranormal
Length: 147 Pages
Publisher: Self-published
Release Date: December 15, 2013
Available at: AmazonAll Romance eBooks & Barnes & Noble
Add it to your shelf: Goodreads

Blurb: Deadly poison…or exquisite cure?

Noah fell from an eighth story balcony as a toddler, cracking open his skull and shattering his body. The accident would’ve killed a human, but even shifter blood can’t heal some damage. After the pack recommended a mercy killing, Noah’s family ran. But there’s no outrunning the mating pact formed before Noah’s birth.

Wade, the new alpha, chooses an adult Noah to fulfill the pact. Wade believes the previous alpha was a fool to reject Noah as a weak and inferior wolf, but Noah’s family was wrong to hide him and starve his wolf, too. Human doctors with human medicines are poison to shifter physiology. Now that Noah is fully grown, halting his shift to retain the pins, plates, and bars holding him together hurts rather than helps him, and for Wade, more than Noah’s recovery is at stake.

Noah’s family sacrificed everything to keep him alive. Noah will do whatever it takes to save them—including mate with the alpha who is determined to correct past mistakes and defeat old prejudices contaminating the shifter community.

Too bad some still believe Noah is the true poison…and should be culled from the pack for good. Continue reading

Categories: 4 Star Ratings, Book Review, LGBT, Published in 2013, Susan65's Reviews | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Book Review: Rough Attraction by Talon P.S.

Reviewed by JustJen

Rough Attraction (Dominion of Brothers, #3)Title: Rough Attraction
Author: Talon P.S.
Series: Dominion of Brothers #3
Genre: M/M BDSM
Length: 198 pages
Publisher: Self-published
Release Date: May 29, 2013
Available at: Amazon, All Romance eBooks & Barnes and Noble
Add it to your shelf: Goodreads & Booklikes

Blurb: Like brimstone and caramel. When two men come together with a Rough Attraction that burns as fast as Nitrous Oxide in their veins, its hard to find the cruise control and trust that they can make this last for the long run.

~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~

Life and relationships aren’t always neat and clean, or come in perfect little packages. Maxum St. Laurents knows this all too well. After being in a four-year relationship that does everything but bring him pleasure and fulfillment, he finds himself struggling to keep working at it. It doesn’t help matters that the man who satisfies every need and want he could have is the man he is having an affair with. And for Maxum, affairs don’t translate into long term relationships.

Darko Laszkovi just couldn’t help himself when he spotted the handsome man ranting over a flat tire on the side of the road. Moreover, he couldn’t be happier when the reward turned into an insatiable lover he hoped to keep for the long run. But, despite the rough attraction that holds them to each other like power-magnets, when Maxum struggles to let go of a relationship that doesn’t work; Darko’s patience and understanding that, we aren’t always where we want to be, gets tested to the max.

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Categories: 3.5 Star Ratings, Book Review, JustJen's Reviews, LGBT, Published in 2013 | Tags: , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Urban Fantasy Week Review: Cruce de Caminos by Heidi Belleau & Violetta Vane

Reviewed by Susan65

Cruce de CaminosTitle: Cruce de Caminos
Author: Heidi Belleau & Violetta Vane
Series: Layers of the Otherworld #0.5
Heroes: Sean O’Hara and Angel
Genre: M/M Urban Fantasy
Length: 51 Pages
Publisher: Riptide Publishing
Release Date: May 21, 2013
Available at: Riptide Publishing, Amazon, All Romance eBooks & Barnes and Noble
Add it to your shelf: Goodreads & Booklikes

Blurb: Addiction and desperation drive Sean O’Hara to a critical crossroads. Will he make the right decision, or will the floodwaters bound for New Orleans sweep him away?

Street kid Sean O’Hara has never had it easy, but New Orleans has driven him to his knees. His girlfriend’s broken up with him for a sugar daddy, a gun-toting pimp has robbed him of everything but the clothes on his back, and he’s down to his last two Oxycontin. Sean’s no seasoned streetwalker, but he’s not above it either, not when he’s already itching for his next fix.

A familiar-seeming stranger named Ángel may be his ticket to some quick cash, but only if Sean’s willing to help him indulge a high-class john’s weird fetish for the night. As Ángel tells him, in this city and this business, you have to get a little weird to survive.

When night falls on the French Quarter, Sean realizes Ángel and the john want more from him than he was expecting to give. What once seemed merely strange soon crosses the line into supernatural and sinister. And Ángel, the man Sean had viewed as a partner and protector, might also be his otherworldly judge and executioner. Continue reading

Categories: 4 Star Ratings, Book Review, LGBT, Published in 2013, Susan65's Reviews, Theme Week | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Book Review: Lost and Found by Blaine D. Arden

Guest Reviewed by Trish

The Forester II: Lost and Found (The Forester Trilogy #2)Title: The Forester II: Lost and Found
Author: Blaine D. Arden
Series: The Forester Trilogy #2
Heroes: Kelnaht/Ianys/Taruif
Genre: M/M Fantasy
Length: 88 Pages
Publisher: Storm Moon Press
Release Date: December 21, 2013
Available at: Storm Moon Press & Amazon
Add it to your shelf: Goodreads

Blurb: “The Guide mentioned puddles, but I envisioned lakes, deep treacherous lakes, and I was drowning.”

One turn has passed, another Solstice is just around the corner, and having an illicit affair with not one but two lovers—smith Ianys and shunned Forester Taruif—is taking its toll on Truth Seeker Kelnaht.

If it isn’t sneaking around to find some quality time with his lovers, it’s heavy rainfall hiding traces of a missing stripling, or waiting for the elders to decide whether or not to set Taruif free.

And if that’s not enough, Kelnaht fears that in gaining one lover, he might be losing another, as Ianys seems to be pulling away from them, and it looks like someone is, once again, trying to frame Taruif.

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Categories: 4 Star Ratings, Book Review, Guest Reviewer, LGBT, Published in 2013 | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Book Review: Glen & Tyler’s Paris Double-Cross by JB Sanders

Reviewed by Nikyta

Glen & Tyler's Paris Double-cross (Glen & Tyler #3)Title: Glen & Tyler’s Paris Double-Cross
Author: JB Sanders
Series: Glen & Tyler #3
Heroes: Glen & Tyler
Genre: M/M Comtemporary/Humor
Length: 197 pages
Publisher: Self-published
Release Date: April 24, 2013
Available at: Lulu, Amazon & Barnes and Noble
Add it to your shelf: Goodreads & Booklikes

Blurb: Glen and Tyler are young, in love, and the wealthiest human beings on the planet.  But when Glen’s brother calls from a jail in Paris, you guessed it, they’re off to France to tangle with spies, neo-Nazis, evil world-spanning conspiracies and French gangsters. Plus they have a romantic dinner, and find long-lost treasure. Really, it’s a fun-filled non-stop romp.

In this third installment of the Glen & Tyler series, we meet up with our heroes a couple of years after their Scottish Troubles, a little more world-weary, a little wiser and no less sarcastic. Continue reading

Categories: 4 Star Ratings, Book Review, LGBT, Nikyta's Reviews, Published in 2013 | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

KC Burn Week Review: Cast Off

Reviewed by JustJen

Cast Off (Toronto Tales, #3)Title: Cast Off
Author: KC Burn
Series: Toronto Tales #3
Heroes: Rick Haviland/Ian O’Donnell
Genre: M/M Contemporary
Length: 200 Pages
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press
Release Date: September 4, 2013
Available at: Dreamspinner PressAmazon, All Romance eBookBarnes and Noble
Add it to your shelf: Goodreads & Booklikes 

Blurb: Thirty-five-year-old Rick Haviland is a well-respected speech pathologist, but while his friends are all settling into relationships, he refuses to give up his no-strings-attached club boy sex life. For him, relationships are dangerous; he’s got a secret to hide. When he meets Ian O’Donnell, an account manager with a local tabloid, Rick figures his personal rules for relationships should be enough to keep him safe from more than a one-night stand.

When Ian comes out of the closet, tired of anonymous hook-ups and keeping secrets from his large Catholic family, Rick is right there, and he’s just the sort of man Ian might like to get to know better. Their attraction is immediate, electric and mutual. Ian convinces Rick to break more and more of his rules, and his defenses crumble. But someone watches, someone who’d like to see this new relationship fail. When Ian’s job becomes a means to expose Rick’s secret, it could destroy both their careers and their hearts. Continue reading

Categories: 4 Star Ratings, Author Week, Book Review, JustJen's Reviews, LGBT, Published in 2013 | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

KC Burn Week Review: Pen Name – Doctor Chicken

Reviewed by Heather C

18740213Title: Pen Name – Doctor Chicken
Author: KC Burn
Heroes: Stratford & Vinnie
Genre: M/M Contemporary Romance
Length: 63,463 words
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press
Release Date: November 22, 2013
Available at: Dreamspinner Press, Amazon, All Romance eBooks & Barnes & Noble
Add it to your shelf: Goodreads

Blurb: Sometimes Stratford Dale feels like Doctor Chicken consumes his life. It’s his pen name for a series of wildly popular children’s books. They were his brainchild; he meant for them to be a way to pay his many bills while he pursued his dream of publishing graphic novels. But the Doctor Chicken contract was a raw deal. Instead, he churns out book after book for a pittance, leaving him broke and no closer to his dreams.

Stratford’s dreams of love have fared no better, but he’s still trying. After yet another disastrous date, he’s intrigued by a man going into a cooking class—so he takes the class too. Vinnie Giani is a successful, self-made man who is charmed by Stratford’s bow ties, sharp humor, and clumsiness—which leads to an opportunity to take Stratford in for stitches. Vinnie is, above all, responsible, having taken on the care of his mother and sisters from a young age. Perhaps it’s natural when he begins to treat Stratford more as a child who needs a parent than as an equal partner. But when Vinnie tries to “fix” Stratford’s career woes—including the Doctor Chicken problem—and ends up making the situation worse, their fledgling relationship may not withstand the the strain created by blame and lies.

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Categories: 4.5 Star Ratings, Author Week, Book Review, Heather C's Reviews, LGBT, Published in 2013 | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment