JustJen’s Reviews

Book Review: What It Looks Like by Matthew J. Metzger

Reviewed by JustJen

31453657Title: What It Looks Like
Author: Matthew J. Metzger
Heroes: Eli/Rob
Genre: MM Contemporary
Length: 264 Pages
Publisher: JMS Books
Release Date: August 20, 2016
Available at: Amazon and Barnes & Noble
Add it to your shelf: Goodreads

Blurb:  Eli Bell is the only son of a police chief inspector and a forensic scientist. He’s grown up wonky in a world that only deals with the straight and narrow — and his new boyfriend isn’t helping.

Rob Hawkes is six feet of muscle, tattoos, and arrest warrants. A career criminal and a former guest of Her Majesty’s Prison Service, he’d rather hit Eli’s parents than sit down to dinner with them. One wrong move, and Rob could destroy Eli — and his family — without a second thought.

But this isn’t what it looks like.

Rob’s not in control here — and Eli’s the one to blame.
Continue reading

Categories: 5 Star Ratings, Book Review, JustJen's Reviews, LGBT, Published in 2016 | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Book Review: The Secrets in My Scowl by A.E. Via

Reviewed by JustJen

32072126Title: The Secrets in My Scowl
Author: A.E. Via
Heroes: Wylde Sterling/Jacob Snowden
Genre: MM Contemporary
Length: 311 Pages
Publisher: Via Star Wings
Release Date: October 28, 2016
Available at: Amazon and Barnes & Noble
Add it to your shelf: Goodreads

Blurb:  Sparks ignite and tempers flare when a sexy, optimistic wedding planner, moves his business in across the hall from a jilted, divorce lawyer’s practice.

“Look smart ass. This is the last time I’m going to remind you about breaking sections of the lease. If there’s a next time, I won’t stop until you and your frilly, white wedding shit is thrown out of here. Do you got it?!”

Wylde looked in Jacob’s pained eyes and answered in his deep voice. “Yeah, counselor. I got it.”

From high school, up until he became a successful attorney Jacob Snowden was convinced that love had it out for him. “Everyone left,” were the words he lived by. His mother, his high school sweetheart, his father, and his fiancé, all left Jacob just when he felt it was safe to let down his guard. Not any longer. Jacob was a determined man, set at keeping people at a distance. If his six foot one, military-made body didn’t scare people off, his permanent scowl surely did. At almost forty, Jacob’s social life was non-existent, but he told himself his work fulfilled him. He helped people get out of their loveless marriages. Jacob Snowden was one of the best divorce lawyers on the east coast and was damn proud of it. So, imagine his disdain when a wedding planner moves into the suite directly adjacent to his… an insanely masculine, male wedding planner.

Wylde Sterling had made quite a name for himself in his hometown of Roanoke, Virginia, working for a wedding planner that catered to the elite. He was known for his charm and impeccable taste. Yep, he was incredible at giving couples the wedding of their dreams. But he wanted nothing more than to plan his own. After striking out in love more times than he cared to admit, Wylde decided to start his own business in a new city, hoping Richmond would give him a fresh start. Things started out wonderfully – until he started to piss off the angry divorce attorney next door.

Wylde could see past Jacob’s mean scowl, knowing there was a reason for it. It was the man’s defense mechanism, his means of keeping people away. Everything in Wylde told him to stay away, but he believed Jacob just needed to meet a man who had been hurt as badly as he had.
Continue reading

Categories: 4 Star Ratings, Book Review, JustJen's Reviews, LGBT, Published in 2016 | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Book Review: Ricky by Ashley John

Reviewed by JustJen

31309771Title: Ricky
Author: Ashley John
Heroes: Ricky Thompson/Chase Brody
Genre: MM Contemporary
Length: 316 Pages
Publisher: Ashley John
Release Date: October 23, 2016
Available at: Amazon
Add it to your shelf: Goodreads

Blurb:  On the surface, Ricky Thompson’s life is one long party. His razor sharp wit and unwavering sexual confidence masks his true pain and suffering, and that’s how he wants to keep things. Ten years after the death of his fiancé, Ricky has completely given up on the illusion of love. Wild nights in the bar and even wilder casual sex have become his coping mechanism, and he wants to keep the party going at whatever cost. When he is attacked in a dark alley and left for dead, Ricky’s life takes an unexpected turn and the party suddenly comes to an end.

Chase Brody doesn’t know where life is taking him. Between running his gym and raising his son, Dylan, the only time he puts himself first is his once a week trip to the gay bars. His family has convinced him he needs to find a mother for Dylan, so he keeps his sexual desires secret. He always believed women were for love and men were for sex, but he is forced to reevaluate everything he thought he knew when he stumbles across a helpless man in need of his help.

After Chase takes Ricky to the hospital, he offers him free self-defence classes, but it soon grows into something more complicated and both men are forced to listen to their hearts once again. Chase doesn’t know how Ricky will fit into his difficult life, and Ricky can’t seem to let go of his past heartache. With so much at stake, will these men admit they were wrong about love and surrender their hearts to each other, or is the risk too great?
Continue reading

Categories: 4 Star Ratings, Book Review, JustJen's Reviews, LGBT, Published in 2016 | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Book Review: Full Circle by Victoria Sue

Reviewed by JustJen

32177845Title: Full Circle
Author: Victoria Sue
Series: Sirius Wolves #7
Heroes: Jed/Adam
Genre: MM Paranormal
Length: 154 Pages
Publisher: Dark Hollows Press
Release Date: October 18, 2016
Available at:  Amazon
Add it to your shelf: Goodreads

Blurb:  “Win the love of the wolf with the hardest heart.”

Faced with eternal banishment to hell, Anubis, god of the underworld, has found a loophole in one of the oldest laws which will allow him to unleash his evil on an unsuspecting human world. Orion’s only hope to stop him is to accept his challenge: send a champion to win the love of the wolf with the hardest heart. It will take someone with a pure heart to soften a closed one, so faced with the threat of losing not only the werewolves, but the destruction of the human race, the gods can only do one thing — send Adam, one of their own.

Adam quickly realizes that the werewolf whose love he must win is Jed. Wounded after the loss of his wife and son, Jed promised he would never love again or be responsible for someone else’s happiness. Adam has been given a near impossible task.

Anubis is eager to see Adam fail, and unbeknown to everyone takes matters into his own hands to make sure of it. Everything happening now is part of his master plan, and finally it has come full circle.

Even if Adam succeeds and wins Jed’s heart, will that love survive when Jed discovers the whole thing was nothing more than a bet? Or when Adam does the one thing he mustn’t and falls in love himself, will he not only break Jed’s heart but completely destroy his own?
Continue reading

Categories: 4.5 Star Ratings, Book Review, JustJen's Reviews, LGBT, Published in 2016 | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Book Review: The Mind Spy by Tricia Owens

Reviewed by JustJen

31370654Title: The Mind Spy
Author: Tricia Owens
Series: Juxtapose City #10
Heroes: Black/Calyx
Genre: MM Paranormal
Length: 170 Pages
Publisher: Tricia Owens
Release Date: October 14, 2016
Available at:  Amazon
Add it to your shelf: Goodreads

Blurb:  Black is powerless, but his new opponent might possess the power of the future.

With Black back in Captain Dickerson’s good graces, a sense of calm has descended over the men of JC2. Though Black is still psy-null, Calyx and he have managed to keep the secret from Kard and their enemies…for now. However, it’s a calm before the storm, for Dickerson has a new assignment: hunt down and kill the rogue telepath, Marcus Maze. While on the surface the assignment seems legit–Maze has been murdering the wives of prominent Juxtapose City citizens–Black begins to have his doubts, especially when he learns that Maze was a former subject of Dickerson’s experiments. What had the experiment entailed? How had it gone wrong and produced such a cold, calculating killer? And more worrisome: why does Black feel a kinship with a man seemingly intent on bringing Juxtapose City to its knees?
Continue reading

Categories: 5 Star Ratings, Book Review, JustJen's Reviews, LGBT, Published in 2016 | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Book Review: Vengeance by Sloane Kennedy

Reviewed by JustJen

31393404Title: Vengeance
Author: Sloane Kennedy
Series: The Protectors #5
Heroes: Memphis/Brennan/Tristan
Genre: MMM Contemporary
Length: 353 Pages
Publisher: Sloane Kennedy
Release Date: October 4, 2016
Available at: Amazon and Barnes & Noble
Add it to your shelf: Goodreads

Blurb:  Memphis
At thirty-four years old, ex-DEA agent Memphis Wheland has lived, loved and lost…everything. The ultimate betrayal by the man he gave everything to has left Memphis with no family, no career and a bone deep bitterness that refuses to release him from its icy grip. His work with an underground vigilante organization is the only light in his otherwise bleak existence. That and the occasional no-strings hookup with men whose only focus in that moment, and for as long as Memphis wants them, is him and only him. No clingy exes, no unrequited love, no relationship drama. Period.

Because Memphis has one rule that he won’t break for anyone or anything. He doesn’t share.

Ever.

Now if only someone had told that to the young man who would come into his life in the most unexpected way…

Brennan
With his entire life ahead of him, graduate student Brennan Devereaux wasn’t expecting it to change in the blink of an eye. But when a case of mistaken identity nearly costs Brennan his life, it isn’t just his future that’s about to change, but his past too. Because for years he’s been in love with a young man who only sees him as a friend and nothing more. And while he was content to love Tristan Barretti from afar, he hadn’t expected to be drawn to the mysterious stranger who saved his life and changed it with a simple promise.

I’m not letting you go.

They were words spoken in the heat of the moment as the darkness of death had threatened to claim him, but even as Brennan’s love for Tristan refuses to wane, his need for the intriguing Memphis Wheland continues to grow.

But any relationship with Memphis means he has to let go of the one thing in his life he’s always valued above everything else…

Tristan
At nineteen, Tristan Barretti should have had the world at his feet. His musical gifts have garnered him prestige as well as admission to the famed Julliard School in New York and he has a family that most people would kill for. But the protective bubble his fathers have kept him in has burst and he’s discovered that life outside his unconditionally loving family isn’t as accepting of a kid born with HIV. A poor decision to find answers to questions better left unasked, along with the complications of living with his disease, have Tristan returning to Seattle and the solace of his family.

And to the young man he’s wanted from the time he was barely old enough to even understand what that meant.

But with an uncertain future that leaves him nothing to offer the gorgeous and successful Brennan Devereaux, Tristan knows the best he can hope for is to keep building on the friendship they’ve shared for years and not get his hopes up that Brennan will be the one man who sees him and not his disease.

Except all bets are off when danger follows him home…

Choices
Even though a physical relationship with Brennan was supposed to be just that, Memphis finds himself unable to refuse his young lover’s request to help put a stop to the threat against Tristan. Even knowing full well that Brennan’s heart lies with the man he claims is nothing more than a friend, Memphis accepts the challenge of ensuring Tristan’s safety.

But when the quiet music student stops being a “job” and starts being something much more, Memphis is torn between his growing feelings for both young men and the fear that he’ll be facing an even greater betrayal that he’ll never be able to come back from.

Except none of that matters when the threat that Memphis never saw coming puts Brennan and Tristan in the crosshairs.

And the cost of the vengeance he once craved suddenly comes at too high a price…
Continue reading

Categories: 3.5 Star Ratings, Book Review, JustJen's Reviews, LGBT, Published in 2016 | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Audio Review: Murphy by Bey Deckard

Reviewed by JustJen

31866229Title: Murphy
Author: Bey Deckard
Narrator: Nick J. Russo
Series: F.I.S.T.S. #2
Heroes: Sarge/Murphy
Genre: MM/Sci-Fi
Length: 1 Hour, 37 Minutes
Publisher: Bey Deckard
Release Date: September 20, 2016
Available at: Amazon and Audible
Add it to your shelf: Goodreads

Blurb: Sometimes when it seems like it’s too late, the right person comes along and opens your eyes…

Murphy is the continuing story of a D/s relationship between two Space Marines who found each other in the midst of hopelessness and misfortune.

Sarge and his newly minted squad travel across the galaxy on a top-secret mission that could help win the war. However, to Murphy something about the mission stinks, and it’s not just the planet they’ve landed on.
Continue reading

Categories: 5 Star Ratings, Audio Review, JustJen's Reviews, LGBT, Published in 2016 | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Book Review: Guardian Angel by Adam Carpenter

Reviewed by JustJen

31826688Title: Guardian Angel
Author: Adam Carpenter
Series: Jimmy McSwain Files #4
Heroes: Jimmy McSwain
Genre: MM Contemporary
Length: 282 Pages
Publisher: MLR Press
Release Date: September 3, 2016
Available at: Amazon and Barnes & Noble
Add it to your shelf: Goodreads

Blurb:  The dual forces of good and evil take center stage in this, the fourth installment in the Jimmy McSwain Files, one that finds the tortured, sexy detective battling an unforeseen enemy: happiness. Yet murder will soon rear its desperate chill, hurtling Jimmy into the highest society and the lowest of lives.

Winter is nearly upon Manhattan, the holidays right around the corner. Jimmy is hired to escort the infamous tabloid favorite Serena Carson to a charity benefit, intent on guarding her from an abusive ex. Yet the job takes a brutal turn as Henderson Carlyle, the privileged, spoiled lothario, is found sliced to death outside of Serena’s brownstone. The cops warn Jimmy away from the case, including his former lover, Captain Francis X. Frisano. Jimmy has his hands full anyway, as his visiting cousin Kellan was found beaten by one-time family friend, Mickey Dean, a Hell’s Kitchen thug with a dark past and even darker threat. As the snow falls and answers remain buried, Jimmy finds himself thrown into the midst of two conflicting cases, one of which will expose a dormant clue to the long-unsolved murder of his NYPD cop, Joseph McSwain. Complicating matters is a new man in Jimmy’s life, who promises Jimmy security and safety, neither word easy for him to accept. When fate sends Jimmy’s world into turmoil, he realizes there’s a devil at work in a season usually owned by angels.
Continue reading

Categories: 4 Star Ratings, Book Review, JustJen's Reviews, LGBT, Published in 2016 | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Book Review: Max by Bey Deckard

Reviewed by JustJen

31685802Title: Max
Author: Bey Deckard
Heroes: Max/Crane
Genre: MM Thriller
Length: 160 Pages
Publisher: Bey Deckard
Release Date: September 30, 2016
Available at: Amazon and Barnes & Noble
Add it to your shelf: Goodreads

Blurb:  Fresh out of school, Dr. Crane takes on a new patient who both intrigues and unnerves him. Charming, manipulative, and amoral, Max has exactly the sort of mind Crane finds himself drawn to with fictional characters.

As Max weaves himself into Crane’s life, Crane realizes that while fiction might be safe, Max certainly is not.

When the professional line between them thins, who gets to define where one man ends and the other begins?
Continue reading

Categories: 5 Star Ratings, Book Review, JustJen's Reviews, LGBT, Published in 2016 | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Book Review: Rogue Soldier by Jamie Lynn Miller

Reviewed by JustJen

32034719Title: Rogue Soldier
Author: Jamie Lynn Miller
Series: Shadow Unit #2
Heroes: Connor Finley/Shawn Weller
Genre: MM Contemporary
Length: 203 Pages
Publisher: Jamie Lynn Miller
Release Date: September 6, 2016
Available at: Amazon and Barnes & Noble
Add it to your shelf: Goodreads

Blurb:  Shadow Unit may have overturned the illegal arms cartel in Kuala Lumpur, but the harrowing undercover op left emotional scars on Sergeants Shawn Weller and Connor Finley. Slowly, patiently, they piece their partnership back together, closer now than ever before.

But the arrival of Julian Montgomery, Shawn’s former CIA handler and lover, threatens to tear them apart. Julian knows all of Shawn’s secrets as well as the past Shawn has kept hidden from Connor. Now the self-serving Julian wants Shawn back—with the CIA and with him. No one will get in his way. Including Connor.

When the joint Shadow Unit/CIA mission to stop the supplier of a deadly biological weapon goes sideways, Connor is captured, tortured, and used as a human test subject. It’s a race against time to save his life. But who can Shawn trust?

And who has gone rogue?
Continue reading

Categories: 3.5 Star Ratings, Book Review, JustJen's Reviews, LGBT, Published in 2016 | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment