Posts Tagged With: Coming-of-Age

Challenge Week Review: Sex & Sourdough by A.J. Thomas

Reviewed by Nikyta

1Title: Sex & Sourdough
Author: A.J. Thomas
Heroes: Anders Blankenship/Kevin Winters
Genre: M/M Contemporary
Length: 266 Pages
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press
Release Date: December 13, 2013
Available at: Dreamspinner Press, Amazon, Barnes and Noble,
All Romance eBooks
Add it to your shelf: Goodreads

Blurb: Anders Blankenship never intended to hike the Appalachian Trail alone, but when his boyfriend cancels, Anders steels his courage, leaving the abusive relationship to tackle the long-distance hike. Though a hiking virgin, he’s glad he made the decision when he receives threatening messages from his ex. Luckily, Kevin, an experienced backpacker, takes him under his wing.

Kevin Winters isn’t looking for a hiking partner, let alone a fling with a cute man on the rebound. After learning he has the autoimmune disorder that killed his father, Kevin left his family to wander remote trails. Convinced his future holds only pain and death, Kevin refuses to get close to anyone. The family sourdough recipes he recreates over a campfire are his only solace.

In the wilderness, Anders and Kevin discover a lot of common ground. While the future holds uncertainties they may not be ready to deal with, it might also hold the chance for happiness.
Continue reading

Categories: 4 Star Ratings, Book Review, Challenge Book Week, LGBT, Nikyta's Reviews, Published in 2013 | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Book Review: Heaven Can’t Wait by Eli Easton

Reviewed by Nikyta

1Title: Heaven Can’t Wait
Author: Eli Easton
Series: 2014 Daily Dose – Mended
Heroes: Kevin & Chuck… and Brian
Genre: M/M Contemporary/Paranormal
Length: 81 Pages
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press
Release Date: June 1, 2014
Available at: Dreamspinner Press, Amazon, All Romance eBooks
Add it to your shelf: Goodreads

Blurb: When Brian Matheson dies at nineteen, his soul is in limbo. He has one chance to redeem himself before he’s thrown into a nasty pit. All Brian has to do is save the life of Kevin Anderson, a boy he and his friends tormented for being gay.

Kevin thought he’d finally escaped bullying. But his college roommate, Chuck, and his homophobic pals, prove him wrong. Now he can only wait for another room to open up—and try to keep his eyes off sexy, uber-straight Chuck.

Chuck is struggling to keep up the tough-guy façade everyone expects, but being trapped in a dorm room with the prettiest twink he’s ever seen isn’t helping him keep his feelings hidden.

If Brian can untangle this mess, he’ll deserve his wings.
Continue reading

Categories: 4.5 Star Ratings, Book Review, LGBT, Nikyta's Reviews, Published in 2014 | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Book Review: The Red Sheet by Mia Kerick

Reviewed by Heather C

20619717Title: The Red Sheet
Author: Mia Kerick
Hero: Bryan Dennison
Genre: M/M Young Adult, Contemporary
Length: 57,000 words
Publisher: Harmony Ink Press
Release Date: February 21, 2014
Available at: Harmony Ink Press, Amazon, All Romance eBooks & Barnes and Noble
Add it to your shelf: Goodreads & Booklikes

Blurb: One October morning, high school junior Bryan Dennison wakes up a different person—helpful, generous, and chivalrous—a person whose new admirable qualities he doesn’t recognize. Stranger still is the urge to tie a red sheet around his neck like a cape.

Bryan soon realizes this compulsion to wear a red cape is accompanied by more unusual behavior. He can’t hold back from retrieving kittens from tall trees, helping little old ladies cross busy streets, and defending innocence anywhere he finds it.

Shockingly, at school, he realizes he used to be a bully. He’s attracted to the former victim of his bullying, Scott Beckett, though he has no memory of Scott from before “the change.” Where he’d been lazy in academics, overly aggressive in sports, and socially insecure, he’s a new person. And although he can recall behaving egotistically, he cannot remember his motivations.

Everyone, from his mother to his teachers to his “superjock” former pals, is shocked by his dramatic transformation. However, Scott Beckett is not impressed by Bryan’s newfound virtue. And convincing Scott he’s genuinely changed and improved, hopefully gaining Scott’s trust and maybe even his love, becomes Bryan’s obsession. Continue reading

Categories: 4.5 Star Ratings, Book Review, Heather C's Reviews, LGBT, Published in 2014 | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Book Review: Five Ways a Boy Can Break Your Heart by Cate Ashwood & Skylar M. Cates

Reviewed by Nikyta

Title: Five Ways a Boy Can Break Your Heart
Authors: Cate Ashwood & Skylar M. Cates
Heroes: Trey & Liam
Genre: M/M Contemporary
Length: 116 pages
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press
Release Date: February 12, 2014
Available at: Dreamspinner Press
Add it to your shelf: Goodreads

Blurb: When Trey and Liam meet in boarding school, they couldn’t be more different. Liam is a classical violinist with a scholarship, and Trey is a punk rocker with famous parents. Despite their conflicting backgrounds, they hit it off and bond over their love of music. But after spending every waking hour together, Liam is devastated when Trey leaves school without an explanation. Worse yet, Trey capitalizes on a song they wrote together.

Seven years later, they bump into each other at a charity benefit in New York. Old sparks fly, but Liam hasn’t quite recovered from the pain Trey caused. Liam doesn’t know if any explanation Trey can offer will be enough, or if he can find it in his heart to forgive the only man he’s ever really loved. Continue reading

Categories: 3.5 Star Ratings, Book Review, LGBT, Nikyta's Reviews, Published in 2014 | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Book Review: Far From Happy by Jeni Decker

Reviewed by JustJen

Title: Far From Happy
Author: Jeni Decker
Hero: Jackson
Genre: M/M Contemporary
Length: 200 pages
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press
Release Date: January 20, 2014
Available at: Dreamspinner Press, Amazon & All Romance eBooks
Add it to your shelf: Goodreads

Blurb: There was no smoking gun. No horrible family secret behind why I left. No reason at all for me, at nineteen, to leave for New York, ready for anything life had to offer—especially if it involved certain proclivities. In the time required to walk to Times Square from the Port Authority Terminal, my naiveté was wiped away. I witnessed a prostitute performing her nightly hustle. In the days to follow, I was mugged twice, ripped off while trying to purchase pot, and beaten to the point of soiling myself. But a chance encounter with a young hustler led to a meeting with Mr. B, mob-connected owner of multiple clubs on Times Square, all under fire from a new mayor embarking on an anti-sleaze campaign directed squarely at The Deuce.

I spent the next twenty years of my life coming of age on the streets, but now, as I speed south across the countryside, heading for my native New Orleans and a dying sister, I make a pact to leave New York in New York, only to find coming home proves harder than coming out. Continue reading

Categories: 4.5 Star Ratings, Book Review, JustJen's Reviews, LGBT, Published in 2014 | Tags: , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Early Review: Strain by Amelia C. Gormley

Reviewed by Heather C

18460726Title: Strain
Author: Amelia C. Gormley
The Heroes: Rhys Cooper & Darius Murrell
Genre: M/M Romance, Science Fiction, Post-Apocolyptic
Length: 104,300 words
Publisher: Riptide Publishing
Release Date: February 17, 2014
Available at: Riptide Publishing
Add it to your shelf at: GoodreadsBooklikes

Blurb: In a world with little hope and no rules, the only thing they have to lose is themselves.

Rhys Cooper is a dead man. Cut off from the world since childhood, he’s finally exposed to the lethal virus that wiped out most of the human race. Now his only hope for survival is infection by another strain that might provide immunity. But it’s sexually transmitted, and the degradation he feels at submitting to the entire squad of soldiers that rescued him eclipses any potential for pleasure—except with Darius, the squadron’s respected, capable leader.

Sergeant Darius Murrell has seen too much death and too little humanity. He’s spent a decade putting plague victims out of their misery and escorting survivors to a safe haven he can never enjoy. He’d rather help Rhys live than put him down, so when Rhys can’t reconcile himself to doing what’s necessary to survive, Darius is forced to save Rhys in spite of himself.

But with each passing day, it looks less and less likely that Rhys can be saved. And that means that Darius might soon have to put a bullet in the head of the one person in years who reminds him of what it means to be human. Continue reading

Categories: 4.5 Star Ratings, Book Review, Heather C's Reviews, LGBT, Published in 2014 | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Early Review: Initiation by Nik Valentine

Reviewed by JustJen

Title: Initiation
Author: Nik Valentine
Heroes: Joey/Gabriel
Genre: M/M BDSM
Length: 200 pages
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press
Release Date:  January 31, 2014
Available at: Dreamspinner Press
Add it to your shelf: Goodreads

Blurb: After a difficult start in life, Joey’s dreams are finally coming true after he is accepted to the college of his choice. He attempts to find what’s missing on a BDSM website and is invited to dinner by Gabriel. Joey finds comfort in Gabriel’s understanding of his needs and accepts an invitation to spend the weekend together so Joey can find out if being a sex slave is really what he wants.

Their weekend starts out rough when Gabriel finds out Joey kept an important secret from him, but they persevere, and Joey discovers he is made for the role Gabriel guides him into. Gabriel is a stern, temperamental Master, but this only makes the trust between grow until Joey can proudly say,

My name is Joey Mantello.
I am nineteen years old.
I am a sex slave.
I belong only to my Master, Gabriel.
I would have it no other way. Continue reading

Categories: 3.5 Star Ratings, Book Review, JustJen's Reviews, LGBT, Published in 2014 | Tags: , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Young Adult Week! Review: Safe by C. Kennedy

Review by Susan65

Safe by C. Kennedy eBookTitle:  Safe
Author: C. Kennedy
Heroes: Nicolo (Nico) Caro and Caleb Deering
Genre: M/M YA Contemporary
Length: 89 Pages
Publisher: Harmony Ink
Release Date: October 24, 2013
Available at: Dreamspinner Press, Amazon, All Romance eBooks & Barnes and Noble
Add it to your shelf: Goodreads & Booklikes

Blurb: They met at ten; they kissed at twelve, and were madly in love by eighteen.

Caleb Deering is the captain of the swim team and the hottest senior in school. He comes from a loving home with a kind father and a caring, but strict, mother who is battling breast cancer. Nico Caro is small and beautiful, and has a father who rules with an iron fist–literally.

One morning Caleb forgets himself, and he pecks Nico on the lips at school. A teacher sees them and tattles to the Headmaster. The accidental outing at school might be the least of their problems, because the ball set in motion by the school’s calls to their parents could get Nico killed. In the face of that very real danger, Caleb knows he has only one mission in life: to keep Nico safe. Continue reading

Categories: 3 Star Ratings, Book Review, LGBT, Published in 2013, Susan65's Reviews | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Book Review: Justice for Skylar by Sandrine Gasq-Dion

Reviewed by Susan65

Title:  Justice for Skylar
Author: Sandrine Gasq-Dion
Series: The 12 Olympians #1
Heroes: Justice Salvatore & Skylar Foxx
Genre: M/M Paranormal
Length: 251 pages
Publisher: Self-Published
Release Date: December 24, 2013
Available at: Amazon
Add it to your shelf: Goodreads & Booklikes

Blurb: Skylar Foxx has been on his own for years, ever since he had been kicked out of his home just shy of turning sixteen. He worked the streets for food and warmth, certain that one day his life would take a better path. That day arrived in the form of a flyer smacking him in the face after enduring a particularly rough trick. Walking through the front door of the Pride safe house became the best decision Skylar ever made. He began a new life with help from billionaire businessman Caden Fournier, his husband, Kellan, and their outreach center associates. That life also included a handsome, six-foot-two Italian who looked mighty fine astride a Harley. After a tense introduction, Skylar discovered Justice Salvatore was unlike any man he’d ever met. He’s about to find out just how different Justice is. The two grow closer as Skylar struggles with his own weird… ability. Just when he dares to dream of a happy ending, his past explodes into his present and threatens to destroy everything.

Justice Salvatore has only been in love once, with the beautiful daughter of his werewolf pack’s beta. She was human, however, and Justice stayed away to protect her — only to mourn her death from a rogue attack. Skylar Foxx is stunning, but Justice is swept away by his incredible voice. Smitten on the spot, he sets his sights on getting to know the skittish young man. Bad things are happening to Skylar as they grow close, and Justice will do everything in his power to protect him. A terrifying secret shakes Justice to his core, and he is forced to decide whether someone close to him will live or die. After the hell Skylar has been through, Justice makes the only choice.

There will be justice for Skylar. Continue reading

Categories: 4 Star Ratings, Book Review, LGBT, Published in 2013, Susan65's Reviews | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment