3.5 Star Ratings

Book Review: Secrets and Ink by Lou Harper

Guest Reviewed by Morgan 

1Title: Secrets and Ink
Author: Lou Harper
Series: Secrets #1
Heroes: Jem Mitchell and Nick Davies
Genre: MM Contemporary
Length: 128 Pages
Publisher: Samhain Publishing
Release Date: December 10, 2013
Available at:  Samhain Publishing, Amazon and Barnes & Noble
Add it to your shelf: Goodreads

Blurb:  When Karma writes you a ticket, pay up or else…

If life was like the movies, Jem Mitchell’s wouldn’t be such a mess. In LA’s glittering world of dreams, he works an unglamorous job at a gourmet grocery store. His past is so deep and dark, the details are lost even to him. All he knows is he was once cursed by a meter maid, and ever since, his love life has sucked.

When Detective Nick Davies becomes a regular at the store, Jem dares to hope he’s un-hexed at last. He should have known that sex with a remarkably normal guy, devoid of weird fetishes and fatal personality flaws, was too good to be true.

During a post-encounter cuddle, Nick recognizes the tattoo on Jem’s back—and remembers him as a young hustler he arrested nine years past.

As Jem’s memories come crashing back, he flees from Nick, but fate contrives to keep pushing them back together. And when Jem’s old partner in crime is found murdered, the stakes are raised for life, for love, and a dangerous drama with no guarantee of a Hollywood ending.

Warning: Stars a mild-mannered store clerk with a shady past, a hunky cop whose passion in the bedroom is as big as his passion for justice, and celebrity sightings you won’t see on TMZ.
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Categories: 3.5 Star Ratings, Book Review, Guest Reviewer, LGBT, Published in 2013 | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Book Review: Pretend by Riley Hart

Reviewed by JustJen

1Title: Pretend
Author: Riley Hart
Series: Blackcreek #3
Heroes: Mason Alexander/Gavin Davis
Genre: MM Contemporary
Length: 207 Pages
Publisher: Riley Hart
Release Date: December 29, 2014
Available at: Amazon
Add it to your shelf: Goodreads

Blurb:  Mason Alexander thought all he wanted in life was something to call his own—something without the family name attached. He got that when he bought his bar in Blackcreek…but then a hard truth opens his eyes that he’s been lied to his whole life, and he’s tangled amid the family that loves him, a truth that haunts him, and torn between the life he wants for himself and the obligation he feels for his family.

Gavin Davis knows a thing or two about living a double life. Being a gay man with strict Christian parents who believe he’s going to Hell, has never been easy. Instead of dealing, Gavin lost himself in his career. Teaching music gives him solace. So when he loses his job at a private school for helping out a gay kid, he feels like he lost more than a job. He lost his identity.

Blackcreek is a new start for both of them, two men, loyal to a fault, who both feel obligated to people in their lives. What Mason and Gavin don’t expect to find in each other is the place where they can be real. They know they want each other, it’s the rest of it they can’t figure out. Caught between loyalty, obligation, fear, tragedy and family, Mason and Gavin’s lives threaten to pull them away from each other if they don’t get real, and stop playing pretend, for good.
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Categories: 3.5 Star Ratings, Book Review, JustJen's Reviews, LGBT, Published in 2014 | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Book Review: Minstrel’s Solstice by Nicole Dennis

Reviewed by Nikyta

23648899Title: Minstrel’s Solstice
Author: Nicole Dennis
Series: Celebrate! – 2014 Advent Calendar
Heroes: Cullan & Kerryll
Genre: M/M Fantasy
Length: 29 pages
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press
Release Date: December 1, 2014
Available at: Dreamspinner Press & Amazon
Add it to your shelf: Goodreads

Blurb: A wasting plague swept over the Four Quadrants, changing how folks view the traveling guilds. Most travelers now make permanent contracts and settle in villages instead of continuing on the road. Needing to alter his lifestyle, Kerryll MacGhylle rides deep into the Northern Quadrant in search of a place to belong.

The Northern Duke, Cullan Gryffyn D’Antuono, accepts the contract of the frozen minstrel arriving during a powerful ice blizzard. He nurses Kerryll through the ravages of the sickness. Though they live at opposite ends of society, they have more in common than they realize.

A story from the Dreamspinner Press 2014 Advent Calendar package “Celebrate!”.

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Categories: 3.5 Star Ratings, Book Review, LGBT, Nikyta's Reviews, Published in 2014 | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Book Review: Blind Passion by Bonnie Dee

Reviewed by Heather C

23644203Title: Blind Passion
Author: Bonnie Dee
Series: Wyatt Brothers #1
Hero/Heroine: J.D. Wyatt/Leah Schaeffer
Genre: MF New Adult Romance
Length: 176 Pages
Publisher: Self Published
Release Date: December 26, 2014
Available at: Smashwords, Amazon and Barnes & Noble
Add it to your shelf: Goodreads

Blurb: Through personal darkness, two strangers find their way to each other.

Leah Schaeffer has come a long way since an accident took her sight. She’s finally ready for independence, but convincing her wealthy parents she’ll be safe on her own isn’t easy. The first night in her own place at last, she encounters her neighbor with the midnight velvet voice and her world shifts again.

Since finishing a military tour, J.D. Wyatt has struggled both financially and emotionally. When Leah’s parents hire him to act as her bodyguard, he seizes the opportunity. The catch—she can’t know she’s being followed. As he grows closer to the intriguing woman and begins to have feelings for her, the burden of this secret grows heavier.

Although Leah and J.D. have suffered different types of trauma, their mutual understanding of each other’s pain bonds them. But their relationship, dependent on absolute trust, is rooted in lies which will detonate like an IED when exposed.
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Categories: 3.5 Star Ratings, Book Review, Heather C's Reviews, M/F, Published in 2014 | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Book Review: Kian’s Hunter by R.J. Scott

Guest Reviewed by Morgan 

1Title: Kian’s Hunter
Author: R.J. Scott
Series: Fire Trilogy #1
Heroes: Kian and Regan Campbell
Genre: MM Paranormal
Length: 102 Pages
Publisher: Love Lane Books
Release Date: March 19, 2014
Available at:  Love Lane Books, Amazon and Barnes & Noble
Add it to your shelf: Goodreads

Blurb:  Please note, this book was originally a short story written in 2010. This version is inspired by that short story and is a complete re-write.

Kian has crossed over from his world to ours to seek revenge. His plan is to kill the monster who murdered his Uncle. The same monster who used magic to escape to our world and is hiding here and growing in strength.

Regan Campbell is a hunter of Demons. The first son, of a first son, he is the one who protects this world from the monsters that no one else knows are here.

When Kian reaches this world, he knows Regan is the perfect man to fight alongside him, but Regan trusts no one.

It isn’t until they are facing death and a terrible evil that will be let loose, that Regan finally realises he can trust another…his fated partner, Kian.
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Categories: 3.5 Star Ratings, Book Review, Guest Reviewer, LGBT, Published in 2014 | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Book Review: Stardust by Andrew Grey

Reviewed by Nikyta

23640713Title: Stardust
Author: Andrew Grey
Series: Celebrate! – 2014 Advent Calendar
Heroes: Duncan & Georg
Genre: M/M Contemporary
Length: 62 pages
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press
Release Date: December 1, 2014
Available at: Dreamspinner Press & Amazon
Add it to your shelf: Goodreads

Blurb: Duncan is an ocean from home over the holidays and expects to spend them alone. To his pleasant surprise, one of his European co-workers, Georg, befriends him and includes Duncan in the holiday traditions of his homeland: cutting a Christmas tree under starry skies at Georg’s country estate, decorating it at the family’s city home, and shopping at the Christmas market in Munich. Both men are lonely and realize they have much in common. But Georg’s life is in Germany and Duncan’s is in Boston. With the project they’re working on nearing completion, any chance for more than a holiday fling seems as elusive as stardust.

A story from the Dreamspinner Press 2014 Advent Calendar package “Celebrate!”.

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Categories: 3.5 Star Ratings, Book Review, LGBT, Nikyta's Reviews, Published in 2014 | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Book Review: Saint Martin’s Day by Kim Fielding

Reviewed by Nikyta

SaintMartinsDayLGTitle: Saint Martin’s Day
Author: Kim Fielding
Series: Celebrate! – 2014 Advent Calendar
Heroes: Neno & Toby
Genre: M/M Contemporary
Length: 31 pages
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press
Release Date: December 1, 2014
Available at: Dreamspinner PressAmazon
Add it to your shelf: Goodreads

Blurb: Five years ago, Neno Kova fled California, graduate school, and his lover, Toby Cowan, to return to his native Croatia. Since then, he’s led a quiet life as a librarian—until one November afternoon when Toby, who has never stopped loving Neno, shows up in Zagreb. When he left the United States, Neno wasn’t ready to give up his home and family to take a chance on a long-distance relationship. But Saint Martin’s Day has arrived, the day pressed grapes turn to wine and autumn turns to winter. Perhaps it will be a day when other changes are possible as well.

A story from the Dreamspinner Press 2014 Advent Calendar package “Celebrate!”.
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Categories: 3.5 Star Ratings, Book Review, LGBT, Nikyta's Reviews, Published in 2014 | Tags: , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Ariel Tachna Week Review: Out of the Fire

Reviewed by JustJen

1Title: Out of the Fire
Author: Ariel Tachna
Heroes: Evan/Patrick, Rhys/Takoda
Genre: MM BDSM
Length: 286 Pages
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press
Release Date: December 18, 2009
Available at: Dreamspinner Press, Amazon and Barnes & Noble
Add it to your shelf: Goodreads

Blurb:  Evan Nichols likes his nice, quiet life in Boston. An established and respected Dom in the BDSM scene, he isn’t looking for a sub, a slave, or a 24/7 relationship. Then a phone call from his best friend and fellow Dom, Rhys Calhoun, shakes up his comfortable routine. Rhys needs Evan’s help to rehabilitate an abused sub-a sub Rhys has fallen in love with. Evan has misgivings, but he could never say no to Rhys, any more than Rhys would ever refuse to help him. Before he knows it, Evan finds himself at Rhys’s home in Las Vegas with a sub who can barely stand to be in the same room with him and a Dom whose emotional involvement threatens his control. Add in the sexual attraction that’s always simmered between Evan and Rhys, and it’s a situation that has the potential to go very, very wrong. Determined to heal both Takoda and Rhys, Evan doesn’t realize how many assumptions about his own life will be called into question as he tries to help them find their way forward together.
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Categories: 3.5 Star Ratings, Author Week, Book Review, JustJen's Reviews, LGBT, Published Before 2010 | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Book Review: Fire and Water by Andrew Grey

Guest Reviewed by Morgan 

1Title: Fire and Water
Author: Andrew Grey
Series: Related to Bronco’s Boys
Heroes: Red Markham/Terry Baumgartner
Genre: MM Contemporary
Length: 200 Pages
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press
Release Date: December 15, 2014
Available at:  Dreamspinner Press and Amazon
Add it to your shelf: Goodreads

Blurb:  Officer Red Markham knows about the ugly side of life after a car accident left him scarred and his parents dead. His job policing the streets of Carlisle, PA, only adds to the ugliness, and lately, drug overdoses have been on the rise. One afternoon, Red is dispatched to the local Y for a drowning accident involving a child. Arriving on site, he finds the boy rescued by lifeguard Terry Baumgartner. Of course, Red isn’t surprised when gorgeous Terry won’t give him and his ugly mug the time of day.

Overhearing one of the officer’s comment about him being shallow opens Terry’s eyes. Maybe he isn’t as kindhearted as he always thought. His friend Julie suggests he help those less fortunate by delivering food to the elderly. On his route he meets outspoken Margie, a woman who says what’s on her mind. Turns out, she’s Officer Red’s aunt.

Red and Terry’s worlds collide as Red tries to track the source of the drugs and protect Terry from an ex-boyfriend who won’t take no for an answer. Together they might discover a chance for more than they expected—if they can see beyond what’s on the surface.
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Categories: 3.5 Star Ratings, Book Review, Guest Reviewer, LGBT, Published in 2014 | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Book Review: Revenant by Larissa Ione

Guest Reviewed by Gyn

1Title: Revenant
Author: Larissa Ione
Series: Lords of Deliverance #6, Demonica #11
Heroine/Hero: Blaspheme/Revenant
Genre: MF Paranormal
Length: 400 Pages
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Release Date: December 16, 2014
Available at:  Grand Central Publishing, Amazon and Barnes & Noble
Add it to your shelf: Goodreads

Blurb:  HELL HATH NO FURY . . .

 

For five thousand years, Revenant believed he was alone in the world, a fallen angel beyond any redemption. Now he finds he has a twin brother who had all the light and love Revenant was denied. Caught in a tug of war between Heaven and Hell, he must weigh his thirst for revenge against his desire for a mysterious female named Blaspheme—a female whose very origins could deliver him into salvation . . . or destruction.

LIKE AN ANGEL SCORNED

Blaspheme has a deadly secret: she’s the forbidden offspring of an angel and a fallen angel. Hunted by both heavenly and satanic forces, she has survived only by laying low and trusting no one. When Revenant claims he can save them both, how can she possibly believe him? But the powerful angel is persistence incarnate and for Blaspheme, there’s no place she can hide in Heaven or Hell where he won’t find her . .
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Categories: 3.5 Star Ratings, Book Review, Guest Reviewer, M/F, Published in 2014 | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment