Audio Review: Moon Called by Patricia Briggs

Reviewed by Nikyta

51agzcyVmeL._SL300_Title: Moon Called
Author: Patricia Briggs
Narrator: Lorelei King
Series: Mercy Thompson #1
Hero/Heroine: Mercy & Adam
Genre: M/F Urban Fantasy
Length: 9 hrs and 14 mins
Publisher: Penguin Audio
Release Date: September 1, 2009
Available at: Amazon & Audible
Add it to your shelf: Goodreads

Blurb: Werewolves can be dangerous if you get in their way, but they’ll leave you alone if you are careful. They are very good at hiding their natures from the human population, but I’m not human. I know them when I meet them, and they know me, too.

Mercy Thompson’s sexy next-door neighbor is a werewolf.

She’s tinkering with a VW bus at her mechanic shop that happens to belong to a vampire.

But then, Mercy Thompson is not exactly normal herself… and her connection to the world of things that go bump in the night is about to get her into a whole lot of trouble.
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Categories: 4 Star Ratings, Audio Review, M/F, Nikyta's Reviews, Published Before 2010 | Tags: , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Audio Review: Wild and Precious by CJane Elliott

Reviewed by Morgan 

29072752Title: Wild and Precious
Author: CJane Elliott
Narrator: K.C. Kelly
Series: Wild and Precious #1
Heroes: Brent Granger/Cody Bellstrom/Graham Stoneford
Genre: MM Contemporary
Length: 2 Hours, 34 Minutes
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press
Release Date: February 4, 2016
Available at: Amazon, Audible and iTunes
Add it to your shelf: Goodreads

Blurb: Aspiring writer Brent Granger has good friends and a great job at an arts magazine in DC, but he’s batting zero in the arena of love. Brent begins to get a clue why things aren’t working with women from his strong attraction to his gorgeous, gay, and already attached boss, Graham Stoneford. When he sees a personal ad from a man that quotes his favorite poet, Brent decides to do something wild and answer.

Enter Cody Bellstrom, easygoing bisexual musician, who is happy to initiate Brent in the ways of gay sex. Brent now has a new problem: he realizes he’s gay and no one in his life knows it. Cody tires of hiding their relationship, but Brent finds it challenging to come out to family, friends, and especially to Graham. In the end, Brent must confront the truth of where—and with whom—his heart lies.
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Categories: 3 Star Ratings, Audio Review, LGBT, Morgan's Reviews, Published in 2016 | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Audio Review: Prickly Business by Piper Vaughn and Kenzie Cade

Reviewed by Susan65

28245104Title: Prickly Business
Authors: Piper Vaughn and Kenzie Cade
Narrator: Iggy Toma
Series: Portland Pack Chronicles #1
Heroes: Avery Babineaux/Dylan Green
Genre: MM Paranormal
Length: 11 Hours, 10 Minutes
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press
Release Date: December 17, 2015
Available at: Amazon, Audible and iTunes
Add it to your shelf: Goodreads

Blurb: Some people might call Avery Babineaux a prick. He’s a hedgehog shifter from an old-money Louisiana family with a penchant for expensive shoes and a reputation for being a judgmental snob. His attitude is why he and his fated mate are estranged. Not that Avery cares. He doesn’t want to be mated to some blue-collar werewolf anyway. Or so he keeps telling himself.

No werewolf likes to be looked down upon, least of all Dylan Green. He doesn’t need a mate, especially not some snotty hedgehog who sneers at his custom motorcycle shop and calls him a grease monkey. But when Avery gets into trouble with a shady loan shark, Dylan can’t stand by and let him be hurt—whether he wants the brat or not.

Yet once Dylan steps into Avery’s world, he realizes there’s more to Avery than his prickly exterior, and that unexpected vulnerability calls to Dylan’s protective instincts. The sassy little hedgehog needs a keeper, and despite their horrible first impressions, Dylan starts to believe he might be the wolf for the job.
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Categories: 4 Star Ratings, Audio Review, LGBT, Published in 2015, Susan65's Reviews | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Book Review: The Winter Prince by R. Cooper

Reviewed by Nikyta

WinterPrince[The]Title: The Winter Prince
Author: R. Cooper
Heroes: Razin & Kisin
Genre: M/M Fantasy
Length: 147 pages
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press
Release Date: February 24, 2016
Available at: Dreamspinner Press & Amazon
Add it to your shelf: Goodreads

Blurb: His heart stolen by a powerful pari’s magic, a young prince’s veins slowly fill with ice. That is what the stories say. Three years have passed since, and all efforts to save Kisin have failed. He won’t survive another winter. To save the prince’s life, Razin, the court wizard and Kisin’s childhood friend, plans to seek out the pari. But unbeknownst to Razin, Kisin’s heart was never stolen; he gave it freely to escape the pain of impossible love—his love for Razin.

Razin won’t accept Kisin’s fate, for reasons obvious to anyone who knows anything of love. Kisin agrees to the desperate quest, out of duty and a need to protect Razin. But it isn’t long before Razin realizes saving his prince will require more than simply retrieving his heart. Razin will have to convince him to want it.
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Categories: 4 Star Ratings, Book Review, LGBT, Nikyta's Reviews, Published in 2016 | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Book Review: Stage Fright by Adam Carpenter

Reviewed by JustJen

28407318Title: Stage Fright
Author: Adam Carpenter
Series: The Jimmy McSwain Files #3
Heroes: Jimmy McSwain
Genre: MM Mystery
Length: 246 Pages
Publisher: MLR Press
Release Date: January 31, 2016
Available at: Amazon and Barnes & Noble
Add it to your shelf: Goodreads

Blurb:  All the world’s a stage, but in STAGE FRIGHT, Hell’s Kitchen private detective Jimmy McSwain learns that life upon it’s wicked boards can be a killer.

The Harold Calloway Theatre on West 47th Street is home to the new play Triskaidekaphobia, and its playwright has been receiving threatening messages. Theatre owner and lead producer Wellington Calloway has hired Jimmy to investigate, but it’s a case not without its complications. His mother is the head usher there, and Jimmy grew up on its aisles. His ex, Remy, is also the costume designer for the show, a man he hasn’t seen in years. Further making his life difficult is the mysterious Seetha Assan, who is connected–albeit tentatively–to the case that forever haunts Jimmy–his own father’s murder. She may just have the clue to help him finally solve the cold case.

As Opening Night for the play looms, Jimmy finds himself involved in a nest of egos and personalities, all while seeking to find the missing Seetha. Toss in his on-again, off-again relationship with Captain Francis X. Frisano, and suddenly Jimmy’s life is edging toward tragedy. That’s when a murderer strikes, and suddenly nothing is pretend anymore. Life on the stage has turned all too real, and all too deadly. Just like on the mean streets of Manhattan.

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

Early Review: Wolf, Becoming by Rory Ni Coileain

Reviewed by Nikyta

WolfBecomingTitle: Wolf, Becoming
Author: Rory Ni Coileain
Heroes: Volyk & Ilya
Genre: M/M Paranormal
Length: 91 pages
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press
Release Date: February 24, 2016
Available at: Dreamspinner Press & Amazon
Add it to your shelf: Goodreads

Blurb: Volyk learns very young that he has to hide what he is—oboroten’, shape-shifter—after his father is killed and skinned by a hunter, and the pack that takes in his pregnant mother is hostile to his kind. When Volyk is ordered to fight the pack’s beta to prove his fitness, but instead obeys his hormones and tries to mount him, he’s declared an abomination and forced to flee.

Ilya, too, hides a secret. Being young and gay in modern Russia is dangerous, and he knows it. But the truth eventually gets out, and his brothers lure him into the forest to kill him. They’re stopped by Volyk, who hides the mortally wounded Ilya in his den. The only way to heal the human is to turn him into an oboroten’.

Unfortunately, Ilya’s gentle nature is ill-suited to the life of a wolf. But when Volyk’s old pack returns, seeking to take away Volyk’s magickal den, Ilya will have to embrace—truly become—the wolf Volyk made him to save both his mate’s life and his own.

First Edition published as “Ilya and the Wolf” by Dreamspinner Press, 2014.
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Categories: 4.5 Star Ratings, Book Review, LGBT, Nikyta's Reviews, Published in 2016 | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Book Review: Succumbing to His Fear

Reviewed by JustJen

28699335Title: Succumbing to His Fear
Author: River Mitchell
Heroes: Alfie/Fear
Genre: MM Contemporary
Length: 185 Pages
Publisher: Via Star Wings
Release Date: February 26, 2016
Available at: Amazon
Add it to your shelf: Goodreads

Blurb:  After a life changing event makes Alfie the legal guardian of his estranged step-siblings, as well as a chance meeting one drunken night, he finds his world turned upside down when he discovers that everything he thought he knew about himself was catastrophically wrong.

Before meeting Alfie and his family, Fear was content with his casual hookups and one-night stands, purposefully keeping everyone at an arm’s length. As Alfie comes into his burgeoning feelings, a curveball shakes the two men, threatening to destroy Fear and his new found chance at happiness with Alfie.

With everything thrown into turmoil, Fear decides to fight for those he loves, Alfie and his family included. Will they be able to survive the collateral damage around them, or will they lose everything?

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

Audio Review: Blood Kiss by J.R. Ward

Reviewed by Nikyta

26823112Title: Blood Kiss
Author: J.R. Ward
Narrator: Jim Frangione
Series: Black Dagger Legacy #1
Heroine/Hero: Paradise/Craeg
Genre: MF Paranormal
Length: 12 Hours, 39 Minutes
Publisher: Penguin Audio
Release Date: December 1, 2015
Available at: Amazon and Audible
Add it to your shelf: Goodreads

Blurb: Paradise, blooded daughter of the king’s First Advisor, is ready to break free from the restrictive life of an aristocratic female. Her strategy? Join the Black Dagger Brotherhood’s training center program and learn to fight for herself, think for herself…be herself. It’s a good plan, until everything goes wrong. The schooling is unfathomably difficult, the other recruits feel more like enemies than allies, and it’s very clear that the Brother in charge, Butch O’Neal, a.k.a. the Dhestroyer, is having serious problems in his own life.

And that’s before she falls in love with a fellow classmate. Craeg, a common civilian, is nothing her father would ever want for her, but everything she could ask for in a male. As an act of violence threatens to tear apart the entire program, and the erotic pull between them grows irresistible, Paradise is tested in ways she never anticipated—and left wondering whether she’s strong enough to claim her own power…on the field, and off.
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Categories: 4 Star Ratings, Audio Review, M/F, Nikyta's Reviews, Published in 2015 | Tags: , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Book Review: Enemies of the State by Tal Bauer

Reviewed by Morgan 

28814263Title: enemies of the State
Author: Tal Bauer
Series: The Executive Office #1
Heroes: Jack Spier/Ethan Reichenbach
Genre: MM Contemporary
Length: 324 Pages
Publisher: NineStar Press
Release Date: February 15, 2016
Available at:  Amazon and Barnes & Noble
Add it to your shelf: Goodreads

Blurb:  A rogue Black Ops unit with the president in their crosshairs.
A Secret Service agent who will break every rule.
A president falling for the one person he shouldn’t—a man.

Newly elected President Jack Spiers’s presidency is rocked from the very beginning, and he’s working furiously to keep the world from falling apart. Between terrorism attacks ripping apart Europe, Russia’s constant posturing and aggression, and the quagmire of the Middle East, Jack is struggling to keep his campaign promise—to work toward a better, safer world.

For Special Agent Ethan Reichenbach, Jack is just another president, the third in twelve years. With Jack’s election, he’s been promoted, and now he’s running the presidential detail, which puts him side by side with Jack daily. He’s expecting another stuffed suit and an arrogant DC politician, but Jack shocks him with his humor and humanity.

There are rules against a Secret Service agent and one of their protectees developing a friendship—big rules. Besides, Jack is straight as a ruler, and a widower, and Ethan has always avoided falling for straight men. Ethan keeps his distance, but Jack draws him in, like gas to a naked flame, and it’s a lure he isn’t strong enough to turn away from.

As the two men collide, rules are shattered and the world teeters on the verge of war, and a rogue Black Ops unit bent on destruction sets Jack in their deadly crosshairs. Ethan must put everything on the line in order to save the man he’s come to love, Jack’s presidency, and the world.
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Categories: 5 Star Ratings, Book Review, LGBT, Morgan's Reviews, Published in 2016 | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Book Review: A Duke by December by Sabrina Darby

Reviewed by Heather C

28485033Title: A Duke by December
Author: Sabrina Darby
Series: A Year Without a Duke
Hero/Heroine: Nathaniel Hughes/Elizabeth Smith
Genre: MF Historical Romance
Length: Novella
Release Date: February 8, 2016
Available at: Amazon
Add it to your shelf: Goodreads

Blurb: A YEAR WITHOUT A DUKE

The duke has died. Long live the duke! The only problem is no one knows who the new Duke of Beckworth is. All of England wonders, but no one more so than the people who depend upon Beckworth for their livelihood. In 1816, a year so cold that the word “summer” is a cruel joke, that livelihood is even more uncertain. However, they are all about to find out, there is nothing more warming than scandal and love…

A DUKE BY DECEMBER

Elizabeth Smith is secretly in love with the tall, handsome golden-haired man who rescued her from Arkansas Territory and offered her a new life. Unfortunately, she knows he’ll never see her as anything more than his secretary.

Nathaniel Hughes has spent the majority of his life in America amassing his fortune. When he discovers he is the next Duke of Beckworth, he must reluctantly travel to England, face down his past, and rehabilitate an estate to save those who live on it. But every duke requires a duchess and an heir.

He’ll figure this out somehow with Lizzie, his loyal and capable secretary, at his side. Once at Beckworth, he finds it increasingly difficult to deny a powerful attraction to the woman he has vowed to protect—even from himself. Can he find the strength to choose duty over desire?

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Categories: 4 Star Ratings, Book Review, Heather C's Reviews, M/F, Published in 2016 | Tags: , , , , , , , | Leave a comment