Heather C’s Reviews

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: 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

Heidi Cullinan Week Review: A Private Gentleman

Reviewed by Heather C

13314897Title: A Private Gentleman
Author: Heidi Cullinan
Heroes: Lord George Albert Westin & Michael Vallant
Genre: M/M Historical Romance
Length: 88,823 words
Publisher: Samhain Publishing
Release Date: February 14, 2012
Available at: Samhain Publishing, Amazon, All Romance eBooks & Barnes and Noble
Add it to your shelf: Goodreads & Booklikes

Blurb: To seal their bond, they must break the ties that bind.

Painfully introverted and rendered nearly mute by a heavy stammer, Lord George Albert Westin rarely ventures any farther than the club or his beloved gardens. When he hears rumors of an exotic new orchid sighted at a local hobbyist’s house, though, he girds himself with opiates and determination to attend a house party, hoping to sneak a peek.

He finds the orchid, yes…but he finds something else even more rare and exquisite: Michael Vallant. Professional sodomite.

Michael climbed out of an adolescent hell as a courtesan’s bastard to become successful and independent-minded, seeing men on his own terms, protected by a powerful friend. He is master of his own world—until Wes. Not only because, for once, the sex is for pleasure and not for profit. They are joined by tendrils of a shameful, unspoken history. The closer his shy, poppy-addicted lover lures him to the light of love, the harder his past works to drag him back into the dark.

There’s only one way out of this tangle. Help Wes face the fears that cripple him—right after Michael finds the courage to reveal the devastating truth that binds them.

Product Warnings
Contains wounded heroes, bibliophilic tendencies, orchid obsessions, a right bastard of a marquis, and gay men who get happily-ever-afters. Continue reading

Categories: 3 Star Ratings, Author Week, Book Review, Heather C's Reviews, LGBT, Published in 2012 | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Book Review: Awfully Glad by Charlie Cochrane

Reviewed by Heather C

20444101Title: Awfully Glad
Author: Charlie Cochrane
Heroes: Sam Hines & Jonny Browne
Genre: M/M Historical Romance
Length: 20,344 words
Publisher: Bold Strokes Books
Release Date: January 2014
Available at: Bold Strokes Books, Amazon, All Romance eBooks & Barnes and Noble
Add it to your shelf: Goodreads & Booklikes

Blurb: WWI hero Sam Hines is used to wearing a face that isn’t his own. When he’s not in the trenches, he’s the most popular female impersonator on the front, but a mysterious note from an anonymous admirer leaves him worried. Everyone realizes—eventually—that Sam’s not a woman, but has somebody also worked out that he also prefers his lovers to be male?

When Sam meets—and falls for—fellow officer Jonny Browne after the war, he wonders whether he could be the man who wrote the note. If so, is he the answer to Sam’s dreams or just another predatory blackmailer, ready to profit from a love that dare not speak its name? Continue reading

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

Book Review: Turnbull House by Jess Faraday

Reviewed by Heather C

BSB-TurnbullHouseTitle: Turnbull House
Author: Jess Faraday
Series: Sequel to The Affair of the Porcelain Dog
Hero: Ira Adler
Genre: M/M Historical Fiction, Mystery
Length: 88,744 words
Publisher: Bold Strokes Books
Release Date: February 2014
Available at: Bold Strokes Books,  Amazon & Barnes and Noble
Add it to your shelf: Goodreads & Booklikes

Blurb: London 1891. Former criminal Ira Adler has built a respectable, if dull, life for himself as a confidential secretary. He even sits on the board of a youth shelter. When the shelter’s landlord threatens to sell the building out from under them, Ira turns to his ex-lover, crime lord Cain Goddard, for a loan. But the loan comes with strings, and before he knows it, Ira is tangled up in them and tumbling back into the life of crime he worked so hard to escape. Two old flames come back into Ira’s life, along with a new young man who reminds Ira of his former self. Will Ira hold fast to his principles, or will he succumb to the temptations of easy riches and lost pleasures? Continue reading

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

Book Review: Butterflies by KJ Charles

Reviewed by Heather C

18718973Title: Butterflies
Author: KJ Charles
Series: The Secret Casebook of Simon Feximal #2
Heroes: Robert Caldwell & Simon Feximal
Genre: M/M Historical Romance, Horror
Length: 8,400 words
Publisher: Self-Published
Release Date: October 28, 2013
Available at: Smashwords & Barnes and Noble
Add it to your shelf: Goodreads

Blurb: Journalist Robert Caldwell is still smarting from his first encounter with ghost-hunter Simon Feximal. Their night in a haunted house was thrilling, but the aftermath leaves Robert hurt, disappointed, and resolved not to see Simon again.

But just a few days later their paths cross once more, this time investigating a pair of mysterious deaths: two corpses shrouded in butterflies.

Now Robert wants the truth – on the deaths, on where the butterflies came from, and most of all, on the attraction that still burns between him and Simon. Continue reading

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

Book Review: The Caldwell Ghost by KJ Charles

Reviewed by Heather C

18656381Title: The Caldwell Ghost
Author: KJ Charles
Series: The Secret Casebook of Simon Feximal #1
Heroes: Robert Caldwell & Simon Feximal
Genre: M/M Historical Romance, Horror
Length: 4,500 words
Publisher: Torquere Press
Release Date: October 19, 2013
Available at: Torquere Press, Amazon & All Romance eBooks
Add it to your shelf: Goodreads & Booklikes

Blurb: When Robert Caldwell inherits a haunted house, he calls on ghost-hunter Simon Feximal to rid him of the supernatural menace. But the ghost is stronger than either man realizes — strong, angry, and desperate for release. Trapped in a haunted house with a dangerously attractive ghost-hunter and a sexually frustrated spirit, can Robert survive the night intact…and will he want to? Continue reading

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

Challenge Week Review: Beyond Complicated by Mercy Celeste

Reviewed by Heather C

17974051Title: Beyond Complicated
Author: Mercy Celeste
Heroes: Liam, Kel & Seth
Genre: M/M Contemporary Romance
Length: 88,800 words
Publisher: Self Published
Release Date: November 30, 2012
Available at: AmazonAll Romance eBooksBarnes & Noble
Add it to your shelf at: GoodreadsBooklikes

Blurb: Liam McGuire has the perfect life–his job is a nightmare, his apartment was swank back in the eighties, and he has a secret so painful it could destroy him. What can top that? Meeting his son’s new boyfriend, that’s what.

For former porn star Liam McGuire, life is pretty tame, except that his twenty-one year old son is now dating the love of Liam’s life. At the ripe old age of thirty-eight, Liam’s entire world is collapsing around him, his past catching up with him, his secrets and his lies are coming back to bite him. All because Kel had to go and fall in love with Seth.

Continue reading

Categories: 3.5 Star Ratings, Book Review, Challenge Book Week, Heather C's Reviews, LGBT, Published in 2012 | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 8 Comments

Book Review: The Affair of the Porcelain Dog by Jess Faraday

Reviewed by Heather C

10116196Title: The Affair of the Porcelain Dog
Author: Jess Faraday
Hero: Ira Adler
Genre: M/M Historical Fiction; Mystery
Length: 72,897 words
Publisher: Bold Strokes Books
Release Date: June 14, 2011
Available at: Bold Strokes BooksAmazonAll Romance eBooksBarnes & Noble
Add it to your shelf at: GoodreadsBooklikes

Blurb: London 1889.

For Ira Adler, former rent-boy and present plaything of crime lord Cain Goddard, stealing back the statue from Goddard’s blackmailer should have been a doddle. But inside the statue is evidence that could put Goddard away for a long time under the sodomy laws, and everyone’s after it, including Ira’s bitter ex, Dr. Timothy Lazarus. No sooner does Ira have the porcelain dog in his hot little hands, than he loses it to a nimble-fingered prostitute.

As Ira’s search for the dog drags him back to the mean East End streets where he grew up, he discovers secrets about his own past, and about Goddard’s present business dealings, which make him question everything he thought he knew. An old friend turns up dead, and an old enemy proves himself a friend. Goddard is pressing Ira for a commitment, but every new discovery casts doubt on whether Ira can, in good conscience, remain with him.

In the end, Ira must choose between his hard-won life of luxury and standing against a grievous wrong. Continue reading

Categories: 5 Star Ratings, Book Review, Heather C's Reviews, LGBT, Published in 2011 | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

Book Review: Jurassic Heart by Anna Martin

Reviewed by Heather C

19324523Title: Jurassic Heart
Author: Anna Martin
Heroes: Nick Eisenberg & Hunter Joseph
Genre: M/M Contemporary Romance; Mystery/Suspense
Length: 63,293 words
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press
Release Date: December 27, 2013
Available at: Dreamspinner PressAmazonAll Romance eBooksBarnes & Noble
Add it to your shelf at: GoodreadsBooklikes

Blurb: When paleontologist Nick Eisenberg learns that someone thinks they have found velociraptor bones in Alberta, his curiosity overrides his desire to stay in London. After all, he’s one of the world’s leading experts on prehistoric predators and has always wanted to look for the velociraptor’s North American cousins. There’s only one problem: eco-conservationist Hunter Joseph. While Nick supervises the dig, Hunter rallies support from the locals to oppose the way the team is destroying the landscape in their search for dinosaur bones.

Nick and Hunter just cannot get along. Hunter is self-righteous and pouty. Nick is narrow-minded and geeky. But they have to figure out how to work on the same site without killing each other, especially since someone else out there seems determined to cause Nick more problems than he could have ever imagined. Continue reading

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