Posts Tagged With: Abuse

Book Review: Sweetwater by Lisa Henry

Reviewed by Heather C

3Title:  Sweetwater
Author: Lisa Henry
Heroes: Elijah Carter/Grady Mullins
Genre: MM Historical
Length: 240 Pages
Publisher: Riptide Publishing
Release Date: September 29, 2014
Available at: Riptide Publishing and Amazon
Add it to your shelf: Goodreads

Blurb: Wyoming Territory, 1870.

Elijah Carter is afflicted. Most of the townsfolk of South Pass City treat him as a simpleton because he’s deaf, but that’s not his only problem. Something in Elijah runs contrary to nature and to God. Something that Elijah desperately tries to keep hidden.

Harlan Crane, owner of the Empire saloon, knows Elijah for what he is—and for all the ungodly things he wants. But Crane isn’t the only one. Grady Mullins desires Elijah too, but unlike Crane, he refuses to push the kid.

When violence shatters Elijah’s world, he is caught between two very different men and two devastating urges: revenge, and despair. In a boomtown teetering on the edge of a bust, Elijah must face what it means to be a man in control of his own destiny, and choose a course that might end his life . . . or truly begin it for the very first time
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Categories: 3 Star Ratings, Book Review, Heather C's Reviews, LGBT, Published in 2014 | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Book Review: Love and Punishment by Susan Mac Nicol

Reviewed by JustJen

3Title: Love and Punishment
Author: Susan Mac Nicol
Heroes: Anthony Parglietto/Flynn Parker
Genre: MM Contemporary
Length: 261 Pages
Publisher: Boroughs Publishing
Release Date: August 29, 2014
Available at: Boroughs Publishing, Amazon and Barnes & Noble
Add it to your shelf: Goodreads

Blurb:  FROM DARKNESS AND LIGHT

Someone is leaving a trail of bodies throughout London, and Detective Anthony Parglietto is determined to end the violence. Then he’ll return to the man he loves.

Tough, street-savvy, and used to dealing with lowlifes, Flynn Parker is the last person Anthony thinks he has to protect. Then the Bow-Tie Killer strikes close to home and the world turns upside down. Right is wrong, black is white, and a policeman might become a monster. But in the name of love, justice must be served. In the name of love, pain can be endured. In the name of love, a man can taste the very essence that defines him.
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Categories: 4 Star Ratings, Book Review, JustJen's Reviews, LGBT, Published in 2014 | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

J.L. Merrow Week Review: Fall Hard

Guest Reviewed by Trish

11Title: Fall Hard
Author: J.L. Merrow
Heroes: Paul/Viggo
Genre: MM Contemporary
Length: 237 Pages
Publisher: Samhain Publishing
Release Date: September 17, 2013
Available at:  Samhain Publishing, Amazon and Barnes & Noble
Add it to your shelf: Goodreads

Blurb:  Some memories are better off lost in the mist…

Eight months ago, British academic Paul Ansell lost his lover—and all the memories of their time together—in an accident at Iceland’s Gullfoss Falls. Returning to the misty island country to resume his study of the bloodthirsty Viking Egil Skallagrimsson is tough as he struggles to pull his life back together.

First, there’s his colleague, Mags, who treats him like glass, and summer student Alex, who peppers him with discomforting questions. Then there’s Icelandic jet-boat driver Viggo, a tattooed, modern-day Viking who won’t say much about how they know each other. Leaving Paul to wonder if their volcanic attraction is fuelled by a desire to make a fresh start, or desperation to forget the past.

As more fragments of his lost memories fall into place, Paul is unsure if he can trust himself, much less anyone around him. And he begins to suspect his accident was nothing of the kind.

Warning: Contains a modern-day Viking whose boat has V8 engines for oars, and a harsh land of hot springs and hotter passions that won’t forgive any false steps.
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Categories: 4 Star Ratings, Author Week, Book Review, Guest Reviewer, LGBT, Published in 2013 | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Audio Review: I Can See for Miles by Lisa Worrall

Reviewed by Morgan

12Title: I Can See for Miles
Author: Lisa Worrall
Narrator: Chris Patton
Heroes: Josh Donald and Charlie Cooper
Genre: M/M Contemporary
Length: 200 Pages / 4 Hours, 58 Minutes
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press
Release Date: Book – May 1, 2013 / Audio – September 5, 2014
Available at: Dreamspinner Press, Amazon, Audible and iTunes
Add it to your shelf: Goodreads

Blurb: After a kayaking accident took Josh Donald’s sight, he’s faced with learning to negotiate the world as a blind man. In short order, his boyfriend leaves him behind, making it clear he’s not inclined to deal with special needs. Reeling from the blow, Josh flounders. In an attempt to help, Josh’s friends take him to a camp for the blind, where he falls for the camp organizer, Charlie Cooper.

Charlie seems to feel the attraction too, but when a horse named Dottie pushes them into a hot first kiss, Charlie resists. He believes he’s damaged goods, not boyfriend material. Since the accident, Josh has faced tough obstacles, but the most challenging hurdle of all may be getting Charlie to open up and take a chance on love.
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Categories: 4 Star Ratings, Audio Review, Guest Reviewer, LGBT, Published in 2014 | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Audio Review: Shattered Glass by Dani Alexander

Guest Reviewed by Morgan

3Title: Shattered Glass
Author: Dani Alexander
Narrator: Joseph Northton
Series: Shattered Glass #1
Heroes: Peter Cotton and Austin Glass
Genre: M/M Contemporary
Length: Book – 360 Pages; Audio – 11 Hours, 16 Minutes
Publisher: Dani Alexander
Release Date: Book – January 31, 2012; Audio – April 14, 2014
Available at: Audible and Amazon
Add it to your shelf: Goodreads

Blurb: A male prostitute, a mangy cat, a murder, and an obsession that threatens his career, his impending marriage and his life…nothing is going as planned for Austin Glass.

Austin Glass seems to have it all: a loving fiancée, a future with the FBI, and a healthy-sized trust fund. At least on the surface. He also has a grin and a wisecrack for every situation. But the smile he presents to the world hides a painful past he’s buried too deeply to remember, and his quips mask bitterness and insecurity. Austin has himself and most of the whole world fooled – until he meets a redhead in a pair of bunny slippers.

As events unfold in the biggest case of his life, Austin’s carefully planned future unravels, and he finds himself pushed into making quick, life-changing decisions. But can he trust himself or anything he feels, when each event seems to be just a series of volatile reactions?
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Categories: 5 Star Ratings, Audio Review, Guest Reviewer, LGBT, Published in 2014 | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Audio Review: Intervention by Mia Kerick

Guest Reviewed by Morgan

InterventionAUDMedTitle: Intervention
Author: Mia Kerick
Narrator: Tristan Wright
Heroes: Kai Manter/Jamie Arlotta
Genre: M/M Contemporary
Length: Book – 231 Pages / Audio – 6 Hours, 36 Minutes
Publisher: Harmony Ink Press
Release Date: Book – October 10, 2013 / Audio – August 25, 2014
Available at: Dreamspinner Press, Amazon, Audible and iTunes
Add it to your shelf: Goodreads

Blurb: As a musician at the popular college café Coed Joe’s, high school senior Kai Manter is never lacking for male attention. Out, proud, free-spirited, and sexually aware, Kai sets his sights on his darkly Gothic and undeniably bad-tempered coworker, Jamie Arlotta, a freshman at the local arts university. Sporting long hair and alluring hippie style, Kai expects his interest will be reciprocated, with satisfying sex as the end goal. That’s what usually happens. But Jamie’s lessons in life have been harsher. Having been sexually abused by his older stepbrother for several years, Jamie has grown an impenetrable outer shell meant to keep the world at a safe distance.

Kai is angry at first when he takes the brunt of Jamie’s bad temper, but after Kai accidentally discovers the abuse Jamie has suffered, he wants to fix things. Kai’s plan is based on what he knows best—music—and he stages a “musical intervention” to let Jamie know he’s not alone and things can get better. When Jamie’s perspective changes and he emerges from his shell, Kai changes, too, gaining a whole new understanding of what sex can be when love is there too.
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Categories: 4.5 Star Ratings, Audio Review, Guest Reviewer, LGBT, Published in 2014 | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Book Review: A Rose by Any Other Name by Charlie Cochet

Reviewed by Heather C

3Title:  A Rose by Any Other Name
Author: Charlie Cochet
Series: Fallen Rose #2
Heroes: Julius/Edward
Genre: MM Historical Romance
Length: 270 Pages
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press
Release Date: September 12, 2014
Available at: Dreamspinner Press and Amazon
Add it to your shelf: Goodreads

Blurb: Nights in the roaring city remind bright young things that life’s too short to take for granted. Tucked away in Times Square hides the Pantheon: a secret cabaret for wealthy gay men. Pretty young men in elaborate costumes and rouged lips are eager to please, and the champagne flows all night long. It’s a world of frivolity, fantasy, and debauchery. As Eros, the most sought after performer at the Pantheon, Julius uses his beauty and charm on enthusiastic patrons, but growing weary of superficial love, he longs to make a better life for himself.

Five years after being declared mentally unfit after surviving the trenches of No Man’s Land, Edward Joseph Clarence Junior pieced his shattered life back together. Now he’s ready to take on the family empire. To celebrate his thirtieth birthday, Edward’s cousin takes him to the most posh nightclub in town, the Pantheon. Falling under the sway of Eros, Edward and Julius find a love they’ve never imagined and the chance for a future they had only dared to dream about. But as Ares, a notorious gangster and Julius’s most important—and dangerous— client watches them, the threat to their love and their lives grows by the day.
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Categories: 4 Star Ratings, Book Review, Heather C's Reviews, LGBT, Published in 2014 | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Book Review: The Last Thing He Needs by J.H. Knight

Reviewed by Susan65

22594999Title:  The Last Thing He Needs
Author:  J.H. Knight
Heroes: Tommy O’Shea/Bobby McAlister
Genre: MM Contemporary
Length: 220 Pages
Publisher:  Dreamspinner Press
Release Date: July 28, 2014
Available at: Dreamspinner Press, Amazon and Barnes & Noble
Add it to your shelf: Goodreads

Blurb: Tommy O’Shea is raising his seven younger brothers and sisters without any help from his drug abusing father and stepmother. Since he was fifteen years old, he’s managed to keep the children fed and out of foster care. It takes up every ounce of his energy and the last thing he needs is romance complicating his life further.

Rookie cop Bobby McAlister doesn’t belong in Tommy’s harsh world, but Tommy can’t push him out. As their unlikely friendship turns into a tentative relationship, they weather the daily storm of Tommy’s life with a lot of laughs and more than a few arguments.

Tommy isn’t used to trusting outsiders, and he’s never asked for help in his life. But when a tragedy strikes the O’Shea family and threatens everything he’s fought for, he’ll have to learn to do both to recover from the brutal hit.
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Categories: 4.5 Star Ratings, Book Review, LGBT, Published in 2014, Susan65's Reviews | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Book Review: Dominus by J.P. Kenwood

 

Reviewed by JustJen

DominusTitle: Dominus
Author: J.P. Kenwood
Heroes: Gaius Fabius/Allerix
Genre: MM Historical
Length: 285 Pages
Publisher: JPK Publishing
Release Date: April 21, 2014
Available at: Amazon and Barnes & Noble
Add it to your shelf: Goodreads

Blurb:  In AD 107, after a grueling campaign against Rome’s fierce enemy, the kingdom of Dacia, Gaius Fabius returns home in triumph. With the bloody battles over, the commander of the Lucky IV Legion now craves life’s simple pleasures: leisurely soaks in fragrant baths, over-flowing cups of wine, and a long holiday at his seaside villa to savor his pleasure slaves. On a whim, he purchases a spirited young Dacian captive and unwittingly sparks a fresh outbreak of the Dacian war; an intimate struggle between two sworn enemies with love and honor at stake.

Allerix survived the wars against Rome, but now he is a slave rather than a victor. Worse, the handsome general who led the destruction of his people now commands his body. When escape appears impossible, Alle struggles to find a way to preserve his dignity and exact vengeance upon the savage Romans. Revenge will be his, that is, if he doesn’t lose his heart to his lusty Roman master.

Dominus is a plot-packed erotic fantasy that transports readers back to ancient Rome during the reign of the Emperor Trajan. This is the first book in an alternate history series—a tumultuous journey filled with forbidden love, humor, sex, friendship, political intrigue, deception and murder.(
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Categories: 3.5 Star Ratings, Book Review, JustJen's Reviews, LGBT, Published in 2014 | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Book Review: Family Ties by Lisa Gray

Reviewed by Susan65

Family TiesTitle: Family Ties
Author: Lisa Gray
Heroes: Danny Carmody/Evan Dwyer
Genre: MM Contemporary
Length: 248 Pages
Publisher: JMS Books
Release Date: July 6, 2014
Available at: JMS Books, Amazon and Barnes & Noble
Add it to your shelf: Goodreads

Blurb: Danny Carmody has lived life privileged but lonely. He has always sacrificed his own needs to meet the demands of his family. Now he is faced with an arranged marriage intended to reunite the Carmodys and the Dwyers, the city’s two most powerful families. Out of his sense of duty, he agrees. But always a romantic at heart, he secretly nurtures hopes of finding love within this sterile business arrangement. Once he meets his intended groom, Evan — a talented, attractive architect — those hopes soar.

Evan Dwyer has grown up reviled by his family. Before he was even born, his mother was blamed for breaking up a planned marriage between the Carmodys and the Dwyers. As a result, both Evan and his mother have lived their lives in virtual exile. But now he has suddenly been deemed of use to the families, and they are blackmailing him into participating in the arranged marriage.

Furious, he reaches out to the FBI for help and finds only more complications. Too many people want to use him to advance their own agendas. By the time Evan realizes Danny might just be the safe harbor he’s looked for all his life, it may well be too late. Evan has set in motion forces that threaten to destroy any hope they have for a future together.(
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Categories: 4.5 Star Ratings, Book Review, LGBT, Published in 2014, Susan65's Reviews | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment