JustJen’s Reviews

Book Review: Aftermath by Tanya Chris

Reviewed by JustJen

Title: Aftermath
Author: Tanya Chris
Series: Aftermath #3
Heroes: Brooks/Casey
Genre: MM Contemporary BDSM
Length: 332 Pages
Publisher: Tanya Chris Publishing
Release Date: June 27, 2019
Available at: Amazon
Add it to your shelf: Goodreads

Blurb: The Ever After series concludes in Aftermath. Tragedy, redemption, love… Ever After

Once upon a time, Casey flirted with a pretty boy at a bar, and that changed everything. Recently released from jail, he’s starting to rebuild without the family who raised him to hate himself. He’s got a new job, a room at his aunt’s, and community service hours at an LGBTQIA community center. But his biggest challenge is figuring out how to live as the one thing his father and brother drilled into him he could never be: a gay man.

Once upon a time, Brooks was a confident Dom with a particular taste for bigger men. But since his run-in with a dangerous homophobe, he’s lost his touch. Big, buff guys are hot but scary, and hurting people isn’t as much fun as it used to be.

Until he meets Casey, the big guy with the problematic past. Casey’s willing to do anything, but does his submission stem from healthy kink or from an unhealthy need to be punished? And is Brooks doling out release or revenge? Two people who share a past as violent as theirs could never fall in love. Unless, somewhere in the aftermath, there’s forgiveness.
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Categories: 3.5 Star Ratings, Book Review, JustJen's Reviews, LGBT, Published in 2019 | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Book Review: Fresh Kill by Adam Carpenter

Reviewed by JustJen

Title: Fresh Kill
Author: Adam Carpenter
Series: The Jimmy McSwain Files #6
Hero: Jimmy McSwain
Genre: MM Contemporary
Length: 276 Pages
Publisher: MLR Press
Release Date: April 11, 2019
Available at: Amazon and Barnes & Noble
Add it to your shelf: Goodreads

Blurb: Jimmy McSwain returns, but the question lingers, now that he has finally solved the fifteen-year-old murder of his NYPD cop-father, Joseph, who has he become?

Busy concentrating on family issues, Jimmy hasn’t taken a new case in nearly three months, and when a call comes in from Philip Connelly, who wants proof of his wife, Myra’s, cheating, Jimmy is torn. Take the case, or say no. He rejects it, only to learn a week later that Philip has been found dead in a park on Staten Island. The police believe it was suicide, but Myra—a self-admitted adulteress—is convinced he was murdered. Jimmy agrees to take the case. But it seems his decision to rejoin the world has also affected the other areas of his life: his sister is facing a health crisis, an old friend from his father’s past has resurfaced, and his lover, Captain Francis X. Frisano, is working a difficult case in Chelsea where gay men are being attacked.

If that wasn’t enough, Jimmy is on the hunt to bring down his new nemesis, the criminal mastermind Mr. Wu-Tin. A fire at one of his warehouses stirs fear in Jimmy that the man is trying to destroy evidence of his crimes. That’s when life throws him a twist, and suddenly Jimmy feels that just as he’s hoping to find answers, new mysteries emerge about whether the path he’s on leads to a fresh start, or a fresh kill.
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Categories: 4.5 Star Ratings, Book Review, JustJen's Reviews, LGBT, Published in 2019 | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Book Review: The Strength of His Heart by Victoria Sue

Reviewed by JustJen

Title: Strength of His Heart
Author: Victoria Sue
Series: Enhanced #4
Heroes: Vance/Sam
Genre: MM Paranormal
Length: 214 Pages
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press
Release Date: November 11, 2018
Available at: Amazon and Barnes & Noble
Add it to your shelf: Goodreads

Blurb: To protect and serve…. All Vance Connelly ever wanted to do was continue his family’s tradition and join the Tampa Police Department, but his dreams were crushed the day he woke with the enhanced mark on his face. After years of struggling to adjust to life as an enhanced human, by a stroke of luck, he met Talon Valdez and became a proud member of the FBI’s Human Enhanced Rescue Organization.

Samuel “Angel” Piper is eager to leave his DEA undercover work behind as he joins the HERO team as Vance’s regular human partner. But Sam’s painful past is ever present, just below the surface of the life he has built for himself as an ambitious young agent. When the team investigates rumors of a new drug using enhanced blood, the case’s mysterious connection to Sam threatens not just his life but Vance’s.

Trust doesn’t come easy for Sam, but Vance is willing to fight to convince his partner that the strength of his heart might be the salvation they both need.
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Categories: 3 Star Ratings, Book Review, JustJen's Reviews, LGBT, Published in 2018 | Tags: , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Book Review: A Chip and a Chair by Cordelia Kingsbridge

Reviewed by JustJen

Title: A Chip and a Chair
Author: Cordelia Kingsbridge
Series: Seven of Spades #5
Heroes: Levi Abrams/Dominic Russo
Genre: MM Contemporary
Length: 328 pages
Publisher: Riptide Publishing
Release Date: March 11, 2019
Available at: Amazon and Barnes & Noble
Add it to your shelf: Goodreads

Blurb: Detective Levi Abrams and PI Dominic Russo are reunited and more committed to each other than ever, but they can’t truly move forward with their lives until the serial killer who’s been tormenting them is behind bars. When a secret burial site is discovered in the desert with the remains of the Seven of Spades’s earliest victims, that goal finally seems within reach.

But just as the net is tightening, the Neo-Nazi militia Utopia launches their master plan with a devastating act of terror that changes the landscape of Las Vegas forever. As Levi and Dominic scramble to prevent the city’s destruction, they’re opposed by treacherous forces that propel them toward catastrophe. In the end, Levi’s fate may rest in the hands of the very killer he’s been hunting.

The race to save Sin City is on, and these players are going for broke. No matter how hopeless things seem, as long as they’re together and they’ve got a chip to play and a chair to sit in, they’re still in the game.
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Categories: 4 Star Ratings, Book Review, JustJen's Reviews, LGBT, Published in 2019 | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Book Review: Heated Rivalry by Rachel Reid

Reviewed by JustJen

Title: Heated Rivalry
Author: Rachel Reid
Series: Game Changers #2
Heroes: Shane Hollander/Ilya Rozanov
Genre: MM Contemporary
Length: 310 Pages
Publisher: Carina Press
Release Date: March 25, 2019
Available at: Amazon and Barnes & Noble
Add it to your shelf: Goodreads

Blurb: Nothing interferes with Shane Hollander’s game—definitely not the sexy rival he loves to hate.

Pro hockey star Shane Hollander isn’t just crazy talented, he’s got a spotless reputation. Hockey is his life. Now that he’s captain of the Montreal Voyageurs, he won’t let anything jeopardize that, especially the sexy Russian whose hard body keeps him awake at night.

Boston Bears captain Ilya Rozanov is everything Shane’s not. The self-proclaimed king of the ice, he’s as cocky as he is talented. No one can beat him—except Shane. They’ve made a career on their legendary rivalry, but when the skates come off, the heat between them is undeniable. When Ilya realizes he wants more than a few secret hookups, he knows he must walk away. The risk is too great.

As their attraction intensifies, they struggle to keep their relationship out of the public eye. If the truth comes out, it could ruin them both. But when their need for each other rivals their ambition on the ice, secrecy is no longer an option…

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Categories: 5 Star Ratings, Book Review, JustJen's Reviews, LGBT, Published in 2019 | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Book Review: Sins of the Son by Christian Baines

Reviewed by JustJen

Title: Sins of the Son
Author: Christian Baines
Series: Arcadia Trust #3
Heroes: Reylan
Genre: MM Paranormal
Length: 282 Pages
Publisher: Christian Baines
Release Date: January 20, 2019
Available at: Amazon and Barnes & Noble
Add it to your shelf: Goodreads

Blurb: Abandoned by his werewolf lover, the only thing Reylan wants is to return to his vampire life of blood and beautiful boys. It’s a solid plan, until his first meal as a single man tries to kill him.

Hoping to free his young would-be assassin from the religious zealots that sent him, Reylan enlists the help of Iain Grieg, a charismatic priest with unsettling knowledge of the night’s secrets.

Surrounded by conflicting agendas and an army fueled by hate, Reylan fights to secure his future, if he can only trust the mysterious priest and bury the ghosts of the past.
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Categories: 4 Star Ratings, Book Review, JustJen's Reviews, LGBT, Published in 2019 | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Book Review: Secret Men by Adira August

Reviewed by JustJen

Title: Secret Men
Author: Adira August
Series: Hunt&Cam4Ever #6
Heroes: Hunter Dane/Camden Snow
Genre: MM Contemporary BDSM
Length: 363 Pages
Publisher: Adira August
Release Date: December 28, 2019
Available at: Amazon
Add it to your shelf: Goodreads

Blurb: Three can keep a secret if two of them are dead … Powerful men determined to keep their secrets. Detective Lieutenant Hunter Dane, determined to know it all.
“The farmhouse has been sealed up since the last murder. Almost twenty years. Doors and windows intact. No sign of entry, forced or otherwise,” Hunter said.

“But we’re searching it, anyway?” Merisi peered across the dying orchard at the two-story, clapboard structure.

“You ain’t gonna find it.”

Merisi whirled around. In the railroad ditch, a boy on a bicycle eyed him boldly. His Black Ops 4 cap came down to his ears. He looked about ten years old.

“You don’t think so?” Merisi jumped down beside the boy and held out his hand. “Detective Mike Merisi.”

The boy took his hand. “I’m Bernard.”

“Why won’t we find him?”

“They live in mirrors. We can’t get in, but they get out.”

“They?” Merisi asked.

“Demons.”
Book 6 of the Hunt&Cam4Ever series. Cam’s moved up the hall to his new office and new career. Hunt and his team struggle with two cases at once, chasing one suspect cloaked in wealth, and another in superstition.

But Hunter is never without support:

Hunt walked straight into his office where he slumped back on the edge of his desk.

Cam followed. He shut the door before he kicked Hunt’s feet apart and moved in between his legs. Strong arms went around Hunt’s shoulders.

“We’re at work,” Hunter said, but he didn’t pull away.

“You’re at work. I’m visiting.” Cam rubbed his cheek against Hunter’s ear.

Hunt’s arms went around Cam’s waist. “I’m still at work.”

“You’re on a break.” Cam’s arms tightened and Hunter’s head dropped to his shoulder with a deep sigh.

After a minute, Hunt stood, hugged Cam tightly and pushed him firmly away. “You suck at being a good influence.”

Cam grinned. “You’re welcome.”

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Categories: 4.5 Star Ratings, Book Review, JustJen's Reviews, LGBT, Published in 2018 | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Book Review: Stranded by Cara Dee

Reviewed by JustJen

Title: Stranded
Author: Cara Dee
Series: Auctioned #2
Heroes: Gray/Darius
Genre: MM Contemporary
Length: 259 Pages
Publisher: Cara Dee
Release Date: January 29, 2019
Available at: Amazon
Add it to your shelf: Goodreads

Blurb:  Stranded is the second book in The Auctioned Series. Before you read further, you should read Auctioned. ​

“You have my word, Gray. I will get you off this island, and I will bring you home.”

It was supposed to be an easy in-and-out job. Nothing Darius Quinn hadn’t done before. But this job had something none of the others did: Gray Nolan.

​Like Murphy’s Law advised, anything that could go wrong, would. A mission to save one hometown favorite son was turning into a quest to rescue thirteen traumatized young men against odds so steep, he’d need an oxygen mask to scale them. ​

Facing new dangers and an uncertain future, Darius keeps Gray close and is soon forced to accept that this has become much more than an assignment. For a man whose reputation was built on being ice-cold under pressure, Darius is beginning to discover how good it feels to burn.
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Categories: 4.5 Star Ratings, Book Review, JustJen's Reviews, LGBT, Published in 2019 | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Book Review: Dane by K. Webster

Reviewed by JustJen

Title: Dane
Author: K. Webster
Series: N/A
Heroes: Dane/Nick
Genre: MM Contemporary
Length: 151 Pages
Publisher: K. Webster
Release Date: October 6, 2018
Available at: Amazon
Add it to your shelf: Goodreads

Blurb:  I’m used to being in charge.
In the courtroom. In life. In the bedroom.
But then I met him.

He brings me literally to my knees.

Handsome. Charismatic. Sexy as hell.
He’s everything I desperately crave to possess.

I’m burning to get him beneath me just to have a taste.
Turns out, though, one taste isn’t enough.
And he’s starved for me too.

Two alphas fighting for dominance.
He thrives on control and I can’t give it up.

A battle of wills.
The bedroom is the battlefield and our hearts are on the line.
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Categories: 3.5 Star Ratings, Book Review, JustJen's Reviews, LGBT, Published in 2018 | Tags: , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Book Review: Meik & Sebastian (Obsessed #4) by Quin Perin

Reviewed by JustJen

Title: Meik & Sebastian
Authors: Quin Perin
Series: Obsessed 4
Heroes: Meik & Sebastian
Genre: MM Contemporary
Length: 77 ages
Publisher: Quin Perin
Release Date: December 13, 2018
Available at: Amazon
Add it to your shelf: Goodreads
Blurb: After ruining his chances with Sebastian, Meik is plagued by the past and haunted by the present. His escape: booze and sex. But the memories of Gabe continuously well up and never ebb. They become an ever-present companion he cannot escape.

Will he hoist himself out of depression to seal the past and face the present or will he lose himself in the bottom of the bottle? Continue reading

Categories: 4 Star Ratings, Book Review, JustJen's Reviews, LGBT, Published in 2018 | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment