Posts Tagged With: Coming-of-Age

Book Review: A Casual Thing by Annabelle Jacobs

Reviewed by Susan65

1Title: A Casual Thing
Author: Annabelle Jacobs
Heroes: Patrick Mason/Will Adams
Genre: MM Contemporary
Length: 138 Pages
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press
Release Date: July 1, 2015
Available at:  Amazon and Barnes & Noble
Add it to your shelf: Goodreads

Blurb: Patrick Mason travels to Bristol to spend the summer with his brother, Ben. He’s cat sitting for the first two weeks while Ben goes on holiday. But Ben neglected to tell him he wouldn’t be doing it alone. Will Adams—Ben’s mate and Patrick’s long-time crush—is staying in Ben’s guest room while he waits to move into his new house after a breakup.

Against his better judgment, Patrick convinces Will that a little no-strings fun is just what they need. Patrick doesn’t want to get involved with a guy on the rebound, and Will isn’t interested in starting something serious with a student. But Patrick’s never been good at separating sex from feelings, and this time is no exception. As their weeks together draw to a close, they need to decide if they have something worth pursuing or if it’s really just a casual thing.
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Categories: 4 Star Ratings, Book Review, LGBT, Published in 2015, Susan65's Reviews | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Book Review: For Real by Alexis Hall

Reviewed by JustJen

1Title: For Real
Author: Alexis Hall
Series: Spires Universe
Heroes: Laurie/Toby
Genre: MM Contemporary/BDSM
Length: 470 Pages
Publisher: Riptide Publishing
Release Date: June 1, 2015
Available at: Amazon and Barnes & Noble
Add it to your shelf: Goodreads

Blurb:  Laurence Dalziel is worn down and washed up, and for him, the BDSM scene is all played out. Six years on from his last relationship, he’s pushing forty and tired of going through the motions of submission.

Then he meets Toby Finch. Nineteen years old. Fearless, fierce, and vulnerable. Everything Laurie can’t remember being.

Toby doesn’t know who he wants to be or what he wants to do. But he knows, with all the certainty of youth, that he wants Laurie. He wants him on his knees. He wants to make him hurt, he wants to make him beg, he wants to make him fall in love.

The problem is, while Laurie will surrender his body, he won’t surrender his heart. Because Toby is too young, too intense, too easy to hurt. And what they have—no matter how right it feels—can’t last. It can’t mean anything.

It can’t be real.
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Categories: 4.5 Star Ratings, Book Review, JustJen's Reviews, LGBT, Published in 2015 | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Book Review: The Scientific Method by Kris Ripper

Reviewed by JustJen

1Title: The Scientific Method
Author: Kris Ripper
Series: The Scientific Method #1
Heroes: Hugh/Will
Genre: MM Contemporary/BDSM
Length: 198 Pages
Publisher: Kris Ripper
Release Date: February 18, 2014
Available at: Amazon
Add it to your shelf: Goodreads

Blurb:  Will Derrie has a problem. He’s twenty-one years old and there’s something terribly wrong with him.

He doesn’t like sex.

He wants to like sex, but even when he’s totally into his girlfriends, he still has to run a movie in his head to get through having sex with them. And the movie? So not okay. (His imaginary mistress spanking his ass really doesn’t go well with his real-life girlfriend whispering sweet nothings in his ear.)

When his twin brother Adam accidentally stumbles upon his search history, Ads decides that Will needs an intervention. With a dominatrix. Oh, and also, the dominatrix’s mysterious (and way less scary) friend Hugh.

Is it friends-with-benefits? A romance? A bromance, but with floggers? Will doesn’t know. But whatever it is? Fucking hot
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Categories: 5 Star Ratings, Book Review, JustJen's Reviews, LGBT, Published in 2014 | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Book Review: Twice the Hands to Hold by Louis Stevens

Reviewed by JustJen

1Title: Twice the Hands to Hold
Author: Louis Stevens
Heroes: Brian and Matt Walker
Genre: MM Contemporary
Length: 265 Pages
Publisher: JMS Books
Release Date: April 19, 2015
Available at: Amazon and Barnes & Noble
Add it to your shelf: Goodreads

Blurb:  Twin brothers Brian and Matt Walker went to live with their mother’s brother after the death of their parents at an early age. Brian is still wracked with the guilt he carries around from a young age and sees the world through a distorted lens of self-loathing. When he meets a sexy and interested college-aged guy at the beginning of his senior year of high school, he may have finally found someone who can help him escape his mundane existence.

Matt has his life all planned out — he longs for a solid career in journalism after graduating college. But his tenuous hold on family life threatens his dreams of independence, as does the attentions of a closeted new transfer to their school.

Can Matt pull away enough from his family to come into his own? And will Brian finally get to grips with his past and allow his twin to chase his own happiness?

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Categories: 4.5 Star Ratings, Book Review, JustJen's Reviews, LGBT, Published in 2015 | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Book Review: Sacrati by Kate Sherwood

Reviewed by Susan65

1Title: Sacrati
Author: Kate Sherwood
Heroes: Theos/Finnvid
Genre: MM Historical Fantasy
Length: 407 Pages
Publisher: Riptide Publishing
Release Date: May 2, 2015
Available at: Amazon and Barnes & Noble
Add it to your shelf: Goodreads

Blurb: As an elite Sacrati fighter in the mighty Torian military, Theos is blessed with a city full of women who want to bear his children, and a barracks full of men proud to fight at his side and share his bed. He has everything he needs—until he captures Finnvid on a raid.

Finnvid is on a secret mission to prevent the Torian invasion of his homeland Elkat. Being enslaved by Torian soldiers wasn’t in his plans. Neither is his horrified fascination with the casual promiscuity of the Sacrati warriors. Men should not lie with other men—and he should not be so intrigued when they do. He definitely should not be most intrigued by the leader of the soldiers who captured him and plan to invade his home.

For Theos, everything would have been easier if the infuriating, lying, bewildering Elkati had never come into his life, but he can’t stay away. When betrayal and treachery threaten both their nations, they must work together to stop a war that could destroy their homes forever—even as they begin to question everything they’re fighting for.
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Categories: 4.5 Star Ratings, Book Review, LGBT, Published in 2015, Susan65's Reviews | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Book Review: Forever Man by A.J. DeWall

Reviewed by Susan65

1Title: Forever Man
Author: A.J. DeWall
Heroes: Ren/Cole
Genre: MM Contemporary
Length: 312 Pages
Publisher: Interlude Press
Release Date: August 5, 2014
Available at: Amazon and Barnes & Noble
Add it to your shelf: Goodreads

Blurb: A bond forged in Catholic school, an unspoken attraction that outlasts years of separation and other relationships.

Ren and Cole never acted on that thing that always bubbled beneath the surface of their friendship, not until a chance encounter in a Santa Fe bar and a song that would tip the scales forced them to confront their feelings. Will the influence of a music superstar, a New York socialite and a mystical property manager finally bring them together, or will a history of missed opportunities, their own fears and an impending wedding keep them apart? Can they just have one night, and then walk away?

Forever Man is a story of the consequences of the choices we make, and how the courage to change can last a lifetime. Based on the fan fiction story, Someone Like You.
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Categories: 4.5 Star Ratings, Book Review, LGBT, Published in 2014, Susan65's Reviews | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Book Review: Carry the Ocean by Heidi Cullinan

Reviewed by JustJen

1Title: Carry the Ocean
Author: Heidi Cullinan
Series: The Roosevelt #1
Heroes: Jeremey Samson/Emmet Washington
Genre: NA Contemporary
Length: 268 Pages
Publisher: Samhain Publishing
Release Date: April 7, 2015
Available at: Amazon and Barnes & Noble
Add it to your shelf: Goodreads

Blurb:  Normal is just a setting on the dryer.

High school graduate Jeremey Samson is looking forward to burying his head under the covers and sleeping until it’s time to leave for college. Then a tornado named Emmet Washington enters his life. The double major in math and computer science is handsome, forward, wicked smart, interested in dating Jeremey—and he’s autistic.

But Jeremey doesn’t judge him for that. He’s too busy judging himself, as are his parents, who don’t believe in things like clinical depression. When his untreated illness reaches a critical breaking point, Emmet is the white knight who rescues him and brings him along as a roommate to The Roosevelt, a quirky new assisted living facility nearby.

As Jeremey finds his feet at The Roosevelt, Emmet slowly begins to believe he can be loved for the man he is behind the autism. But before he can trust enough to fall head over heels, he must trust his own conviction that friendship is a healing force, and love can overcome any obstacle.

Warning: Contains characters obsessed with trains and counting, positive representations of autism and mental illness, a very dark moment, and Elwood Blues.
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Categories: 5 Star Ratings, Book Review, JustJen's Reviews, LGBT, Published in 2015 | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Book Review: 500 Miles by Parker Williams

Reviewed by JustJen

1Title: 500 Miles
Author: Parker Williams
Series: MLR Mixed Tape Anthology
Heroes: Mark/Jase
Genre: MM Contemporary
Length: 37 Pages
Publisher: MLR Press
Release Date: June 7, 2013
Available at: Amazon and Barnes & Noble
Add it to your shelf: Goodreads

Blurb:  Since he was fourteen, Mark knew he loved Jase, his brother Eric’s best friend. As Jase and Eric leave for the Army, Jase leaves Mark something to hold onto, but when the two men are shipped to Kuwait, things change when Jase tells Mark he’s met someone.

Confused and hurt, Mark is left to wonder what happened. Eric returns, but with devastating news – and needing Mark’s help. Can Mark help the man who broke his heart? Or will he let Jase push him away – for the second time?
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Categories: 4 Star Ratings, Book Review, JustJen's Reviews, LGBT, Published in 2013 | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Book Review: By That Sin Fell the Angels by Jamie Fessenden

Reviewed by Susan65

1Title: By That Sin Fell the Angels
Author: Jamie Fessenden
Heroes: Terry Bachelder/Jonah Riverside
Genre: MM Contemporary
Length: 210 Pages
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press
Release Date: August 29, 2012
Available at: Amazon and Barnes & Noble
Add it to your shelf: Goodreads

Blurb: It begins with a 3:00 a.m. telephone call. On one end is Terry Bachelder, a closeted teacher. On the other, the suicidal teenage son of the local preacher. When Terry fails to prevent disaster, grief rips the small town of Crystal Falls apart.

At the epicenter of the tragedy, seventeen-year-old Jonah Riverside tries to make sense of it all. Finding Daniel’s body leaves him struggling to balance his sexual identity with his faith, while his church, led by the Reverend Isaac Thompson, mounts a crusade to destroy Terry, whom Isaac believes corrupted his son and caused the boy to take his own life.

Having quietly crushed on his teacher for years, Jonah is determined to clear Terry’s name. That quest leads him to Eric Jacobs, Daniel’s true secret lover, and to get involved in Eric’s plan to shake up their small-minded town. Meanwhile, Rev. Thompson struggles to make peace between his religious convictions and the revelation of his son’s homosexuality. If he can’t, he leaves the door open for the devil—and for a second tragedy to follow.
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Categories: 4 Star Ratings, Book Review, LGBT, Published in 2012, Susan65's Reviews | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Book Review: Lucky Seven by E.L. Esch

Guest Reviewed by Morgan 

1Title: Lucky Seven
Author: E.L. Esch
Heroes: Dante/Sven
Genre: MM Contemporary
Length: 172 Pages
Publisher: Loose Id
Release Date: January 6, 2015
Available at:  Amazon and Barnes & Noble
Add it to your shelf: Goodreads

Blurb:  Dante Mathers, college student, fifth year, has a track record for being dishonest with himself, and is about to undergo the biggest, scariest change of his life.

Dante’s forced himself to go out with girls in the past and he does it again when he’s approached by the beautiful Serena one day on campus, desperate to prove to himself that he’s “normal.” But when he loses a drinking contest and is dared to go to the next campus GLBT meeting by his best friend, he’s not sure how to handle it. Sure he could blow it off and say he went, but something nagging at the back of his mind compels him to go anyway. After all, he’s had problems with intimacy in the past and his first crush was a boy in high school. But is he really forcing himself to go, or is he finally starting to be honest with himself? No need to over think this, Dante tells himself. It’ll be get in, get out. No need to talk to anyone. Easy, right?

But then he meets Sven. Sexy, toned, wearing a leather jacket with spiked up bleach-blond hair, Sven’s bad-boy flare sticks out on campus and catches Dante’s eye. But there’s more to Sven than his punkish looks, and Dante’s about to find out all the sultry little details.
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Categories: 3 Star Ratings, Book Review, Guest Reviewer, LGBT, Published in 2015 | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment