Published in 2013

Mary Calmes Week Review: Heart of the Race

Reviewed by Nikyta

Title: Heart of the Race
Author: Mary Calmes
Heroes: Varro Dacien & Brian Christie
Genre: M/M Contemporary
Length: 91 pages
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press
Release Date: June 1, 2013
Available at: Dreamspinner, Amazon, All Romance eBooks & Barnes and Noble
Add it to your shelf: Goodreads & Booklikes

Blurb: Varro Dacien spends his life riding toward the next adventure. Brian Christie, his best friend and touchstone, the one person who’s always truly seen him, plays sidekick on these madcap adventures and subsequent trips to the hospital until he can’t take it anymore. While Brian can see Varro, Varro has never caught on that he’s breaking his best friend’s heart.

Without Varro, Brian builds himself a life that’s all about just getting by, doing his best to ignore the hole in his heart and his life. Without Brian to balance him, Varro pushes harder and takes more risks to reach that ultimate high. His job racing high-octane bikes on suicide-level courses makes it easy to get that rush… until it’s no longer enough and Varro realizes it’s not the race, but who’s waiting at the finish line that truly matters. Now he just has to convince Brian to be there. Continue reading

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

Book Review: French Quarter Knights by Jacob Campbell

Reviewed by JustJen

Title: French Quarter Knights
Author: Jacob Campbell
Heroes: Thaddeus “Tadpole” Merton
Genre: M/M Contemporary
Length: 201 pages
Publisher: JMS Books
Release Date: August 4, 2013
Available at: JMS Books, Amazon, All Romance eBooks & Barnes and Noble
Add it to your shelf: Goodreads & Booklikes

Blurb: After winning millions in a settlement from the church, Thaddeus “Tadpole” Merton has learned to hide things from others — his money, his epilepsy, and his feelings. Now, he searches for love, acceptance, and sexual liberation in 1983 New Orleans.

Leaving behind a reluctant master in Linden and exploring a new lover in Sandy, Tadpole has adventures into a sensual drug-and alcohol-rich world of gay bars, drag clubs, baths, porno theatres, arcades, and hidden sex venues. Yet he also works with a yoga teacher and Zen guide, and questions himself in light of a world beyond the merely physical.

Tadpole seeks friendship and love, a home, and independence. But exploring steamy sensuality seems to counter his romantic need for true love, and he struggles with himself and his desires. Continue reading

Categories: 4.5 Star Ratings, Book Review, JustJen's Reviews, LGBT, Published in 2013 | Tags: , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Book Review: Interlude with Tattoos: A Charm of Magpies Story by KJ Charles

Reviewed by Heather C
interludesmagpiesv1Title: Interlude with Tattoos
Author: KJ Charles
Series: A Charm of Magpies #1.5
The Heroes: Stephan Day & Lord Lucien Crane
Genre: M/M Historical Romance, Paranormal
Length: 14 pages (4,550 words)
Release Date: December 10, 2013
Available Free at: Smashwords
Add it to your shelf at: Goodreads
Blurb: A short story set just after the end of The Magpie Lord. Stephen Day and Lord Crane return to London. Neither is quite sure where their fledgling relationship is going. It seems unlikely that there can be much of a future for them, under the circumstances, with Stephen going back to work and Crane returning to China. Until they encounter an unexpected moment of magic… Continue reading
Categories: 4.5 Star Ratings, Heather C's Reviews, LGBT, Published in 2013 | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Book Review: My Cowboy Heart by Z.A. Maxfield

Reviewed by Nikyta

Title: My Cowboy Heart
Author: Z.A. Maxfield
Series: The Cowboys #1
Heroes/Heroine: Speed Ball Malloy & Crispin Carrasco
Genre: M/M Contemporary Romance
Length: 266 pages
Publisher: Intermix (Penguin Imprint)
Release Date: August 20, 2013
Available at: Penguin, Amazon, All Romance eBooks, Barnes and Noble
Add it to your shelf: Goodreads & Booklikes

Blurb: A cowboy’s heart has room for anything…

J-Bar ranch foreman Malloy pretty much keeps to himself—slinking around the edges of everybody else like an old coyote, doing his job and staying private. That is until Crispin Carrasco shows up.

Lean, muscular, and with a motor mouth that won’t quit, Crispin sparks something in Malloy—something the foreman didn’t know was there. But how does a lone coyote approach the warmth of a fire? And more important, what would happen if that fire burned? Continue reading

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

Book Review: The Wrong Side of Right by Nya Rawlyns

Reviewed by JustJen

Title: The Wrong Side of Right
Author: Nya Rawlyns
Heroes: Tony/Aidan
Genre: M/M Contemporary
Length: 210 Pages
Publisher: PubRight
Release Date: May 27, 2013
Available at: Amazon
Add it to your shelf: Goodreads & Booklikes

Blurb: Tony Mitchell is a loner who spends most of his life staying low, denying who and what he is until Aiden Caldwell walks into the shop and changes everything. Tony thinks his new supervisor hates his guts, but that doesn’t keep Tony from dreaming and yearning. His fantasies drive him to follow the older man, revealing a secret that only confounds Tony’s obsession.

Conflicted and confused, Tony falls under the spell of a man called Tank who leads Tony down a dark path of seduction and dangerous cravings. Under Tank’s guidance, Tony learns to suspend reality, to succumb. The one thing he doesn’t learn is how to say no.

Aiden Caldwell pulls Tony from the precipice but not from the addiction that threatens to consume the young man.

In the matter of love and trust, can two men intent on hiding their most secret selves find common ground as fate and their own tumultuous pasts conspire to tear them apart? Continue reading

Categories: 4 Star Ratings, Book Review, JustJen's Reviews, LGBT, Published in 2013 | Tags: , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Young Adult Week! Review: Safe by C. Kennedy

Review by Susan65

Safe by C. Kennedy eBookTitle:  Safe
Author: C. Kennedy
Heroes: Nicolo (Nico) Caro and Caleb Deering
Genre: M/M YA Contemporary
Length: 89 Pages
Publisher: Harmony Ink
Release Date: October 24, 2013
Available at: Dreamspinner Press, Amazon, All Romance eBooks & Barnes and Noble
Add it to your shelf: Goodreads & Booklikes

Blurb: They met at ten; they kissed at twelve, and were madly in love by eighteen.

Caleb Deering is the captain of the swim team and the hottest senior in school. He comes from a loving home with a kind father and a caring, but strict, mother who is battling breast cancer. Nico Caro is small and beautiful, and has a father who rules with an iron fist–literally.

One morning Caleb forgets himself, and he pecks Nico on the lips at school. A teacher sees them and tattles to the Headmaster. The accidental outing at school might be the least of their problems, because the ball set in motion by the school’s calls to their parents could get Nico killed. In the face of that very real danger, Caleb knows he has only one mission in life: to keep Nico safe. Continue reading

Categories: 3 Star Ratings, Book Review, LGBT, Published in 2013, Susan65's Reviews | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Book Review: Pen Name – Doctor Chicken by KC Burn

Reviewed by Nikyta

Title: Pen Name – Doctor Chicken
Author: KC Burn
Heroes: Stratford Dale & Vinnie Giani
Genre: M/M Contemporary Romance
Length: 63k+ 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 & Booklikes

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. Continue reading

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

Book Review: Magic Rises by Ilona Andrews

Reviewed by Nikyta

Title: Magic Rises
Author: Ilona Andrews
Series: Kate Daniels #6
Hero/Heroine: Kate Daniels & Curran Lennart
Genre:  M/F Urban Fantasy
Length: 368 pages
Publisher: Ace (Penguin)
Release Date: July 30, 2013
Available at:  Penguin, Amazon & Barnes & Noble
Add it to your shelf:  Goodreads & Booklikes

Blurb: Atlanta is a city plagued by magical problems. Kate Daniels will fight to solve them—no matter the cost.

Mercenary Kate Daniels and her mate, Curran, the Beast Lord, are struggling to solve a heartbreaking crisis. Unable to control their beasts, many of the Pack’s shapeshifting children fail to survive to adulthood. While there is a medicine that can help, the secret to its making is closely guarded by the European packs, and there’s little available in Atlanta.

Kate can’t bear to watch innocents suffer, but the solution she and Curran have found threatens to be even more painful. The European shapeshifters who once outmaneuvered the Beast Lord have asked him to arbitrate a dispute—and they’ll pay him in medicine. With the young people’s survival and the Pack’s future at stake, Kate and Curran know they must accept the offer—but they have little doubt that they’re heading straight into a trap… Continue reading

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

Book Review: The Gentleman’s Madness by Bonnie Dee and Summer Devon

Reviewed by Heather C

The Gentleman's MadnessTitle: The Gentleman’s Madness
Author: Bonnie Dee and Summer Devon
The Heroes: John Gilliam and Samuel Tully
Genre: M/M Historical Romance
Length: Short Novel
Publisher: Samhain Publishing
Release Date: December 31, 2013
Available at: Samhain Publishing, Amazon, All Romance eBooks, & Barnes and Noble
Add it to your shelf: Goodreads & Booklikes

Blurb: An imprisoned heart finds escape in forbidden love.

No pride. No privacy. No hope.

Academic John Gilliam thought being caught embracing another man was the worst that could happen. Until he agrees to “treatment” at an asylum, where a vicious attack leaves him shaken and afraid.

But having all means of writing or reading taken from him… That is a serious threat to his sanity. Then a moment of kindness from an asylum attendant begins to restore his dignity.

Sam Tully feels sorry for the patient everyone calls “the professor”, but with a back injury that cost him his job on the docks—and without the education that would have bettered his position—he tries to keep his head down, and a tight lid on his attraction to men.

As John prays for freedom, he grows closer to the gentle, innately intelligent Tully. In spite of themselves, forbidden attraction leads to touches, kisses, and more. But there’s something other than curative treatments going on at the asylum. When John and Tully uncover a heinous conspiracy, their very lives are in danger.

Product Warnings:

Contains heinous crimes and frightening treatments—oh, and some sweet and loving sexy times between two healthy, not-crazy men. Continue reading

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

Book Review: Fish and Ghosts by Rhys Ford

Reviewed by Nikyta

Fish & GhostsTitle: Fish and Ghosts
Author: Rhys Ford
Series: Hellsinger #1
Heroes/Heroine: Tristan Pryce & Wolf Kincaid
Genre: M/M Paranormal Romance
Length: 240 pages
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press
Release Date: December 30, 2013
Available at: Dreamspinner Press, Amazon, All Romance eBooks, & Barnes and Noble
Add it to your shelf: Goodreads & Booklikes

Blurb: When his Uncle Mortimer died and left him Hoxne Grange, the family’s Gilded Age mansion, Tristan Pryce became the second generation of Pryces to serve as a caretaker for the estate, a way station for spirits on their final steps to the afterlife. Tristan is prepared for challenges, though not necessarily from the ghosts he’s seen since childhood. Determined to establish Tristan’s insanity and gain access to his trust fund, his loving relatives hire Dr. Wolf Kincaid and his paranormal researchers, Hellsinger Investigations, to prove the Grange is not haunted.

Skeptic Wolf Kincaid has made it his life’s work to debunk the supernatural. After years of cons and fakes, he can’t wait to reveal the Grange’s ghostly activity is just badly leveled floorboards and a drafty old house. More than a few surprises await him at the Grange, including its prickly, reclusive owner. Tristan Pryce is much less insane and much more attractive than Wolf wants to admit, and when his team releases a ghostly serial killer on the Grange, Wolf is torn between his skepticism and protecting the man he’s been sent to discredit. Continue reading

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