Posts Tagged With: Coming Out

Book Review: Out in the Open by A.J Truman

Reviewed by Heather C

1Title:  Out in the Open
Author: A.J. Truman
Series: Browerton University #1
Heroes: Ethan Follett/Greg Sanderson
Genre: MM Contemporary Romance
Length: 244 Pages
Publisher: A.J. Truman
Release Date: September 25, 2014
Available at: Amazon and Barnes & Noble
Add it to your shelf: Goodreads

Blurb: Libraries are meant for studying – not sex

College sophomore Ethan Follett never says what’s on his mind and never wants to rock the boat. After a high school social life spent anonymous and alone, things are finally falling into place for him. He’s found a group of friends just as studious as he, and is on track for a promising legal career. Out in the open, things couldn’t be better, but secretly Ethan yearns for some real excitement in his life.

He finds it in cocky fratboy Greg Sanderson, who challenges every rigid, preconceived notion Ethan lives by. Soon, their sparring relationship turns sexual, and these enemies-with-benefits get their freak on all over campus. Yet the more Ethan comes out of his shell, the more Greg retreats into his, working overtime to keep his ladies man public persona intact. As the sex gets hotter, and they get closer to getting caught, one part of their arrangement can’t stay hidden any longer: love.

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Categories: 4.5 Star Ratings, Book Review, Debut Authors, Heather C's Reviews, LGBT, Published in 2014 | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

SJD Peterson Week Review: Conner’s Courage

Reviewed by Susan65

Conner's Courage (Whispering Pines Ranch, #4)Title: Conner’s Courage
Author: SJD Peterson
Series: Whispering Pines Ranch #4
Heroes: John Price/Conner Burnett
Genre: M/M Contemporary
Length: 198 Pages
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press
Release Date: August 3, 2012
Available at: Dreamspinner Press, Amazon and Barnes & Noble
Add it to your shelf: Goodreads

Blurb: John Price and Conner Burnett have been part of the Whispering Pines Ranch for the past thirty-seven years. A loving couple who have overcome every obstacle thrown at them, John and Conner are a testament to the strength of true love. But now John is in the hospital with a diagnosis of cancer, fighting for his very life.

As his lover struggles, Conner looks back on when they first met. The early seventies wasn’t an easy time to be a gay man, especially in a small country town. Considering John’s pride, Conner’s need to be himself, shame, bitterness, and two stubborn natures, their love story almost wasn’t written. But they beat the odds, and Conner will be damned if he’ll let anyone take John from him now. He had the courage to stand up for what he wanted in 1974. If need be, he’ll go toe to toe with God himself to keep the man he fought so hard to love.

Authors Note:
Please note that I am a firm believer in safe sex practices. However, this novel was set in 1974 with no AIDS in sight, and most venereal diseases treated with a simple shot, it was “The golden age of Gay sexuality.”
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Categories: 4.5 Star Ratings, Author Week, Book Review, LGBT, Published in 2012, Susan65's Reviews | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

SJD Peterson Week Review: Beyond Duty

Reviewed by Nikyta

iTitle: Beyond Duty
Author: SJD Peterson
Heroes: Gunny/Mac
Genre: M/M Contemporary
Length: 212 Pages
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press
Release Date: August 12, 2013
Available at: Dreamspinner Press, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, All Romance eBooks and Kobo
Add it to your shelf: Goodreads

Blurb: The repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell didn’t come soon enough for Gunther “Gunny” Duchene and Macalister “Mac” Jones, career US Marines who met at boot camp in the 1990s. They’ve been somewhere between best friends and lovers in peacetime and wartime both, but as the clock ticks toward Mac’s and Gunny’s retirements, the guys have much more to worry about than coming out.

Whether their relationship will survive outside of the closet they’ve had to shove it into for over two decades is a big question mark. After all, Gunny questions why a hot military man like Mac–who could get any guy he wanted, including a younger, sexier one–would want him. But as Gunny and Mac navigate emotional waters as choppy as any they saw on duty, they just might learn Semper Fi applies to more than their careers.

This edition is the expanded novel of the short story Beyond Duty which has been included in this novel. However it has been edited and changed to 3rd person POV.
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Categories: 4 Star Ratings, Author Week, Book Review, LGBT, Nikyta's Reviews, Published in 2013 | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Book Review: Road of No Return by K.A. Merikan

Reviewed by JustJen

1Title: Road of No Return
Author: K.A. Merikan
Series: Sex & Mayhem #1
Heroes: Zak/Stitch
Genre: M/M Contemporary
Length: 238 Pages
Publisher: Acerbi & Villani Ltd.
Release Date: July 19, 2014
Available at: Amazon, All Romance eBooks and Smashwords
Add it to your shelf: Goodreads

Blurb:  — Don’t talk to strangers. —

Zak. Tattoo artist. Independent. Doesn’t do relationships.

Stitch. Outlaw biker. Deep in the closet. Doesn’t share his property.

On the day of Stitch’s divorce, lust personified enters the biker bar he’s celebrating at. Tattooed all over, pierced, confident, and hot as hellfire, Zak is the bone Stitch has waited for life to throw him. All Stitch wants is a sniff, a taste, a lick. What follows instead is gluttony of the most carnal sort, and nothing will ever be the same. Forced to hide his new love affair from the whole world, Stitch juggles family, club life, and crime, but it’s only a matter of time until it becomes too hard.

Zak moves to Lake Valley in search of peace and quiet, but when he puts his hand into the jaws of a Hound of Valhalla, life gets all but simple. In order to be with Stitch, Zak’s biker wet dream, he has to crawl right back into the closet. As heated as the relationship is, the secrets, the hiding, the violence, jealousy, and conservative attitudes in the town rub Zak in all the wrong ways. When pretending he doesn’t know what his man does becomes impossible, Zak needs to decide if life with an outlaw biker is really what he wants.

As club life and the love affair collide, all that’s left in Zak and Stitch’s life is mayhem.

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

Book Review: Ink & Flowers by J.K. Pendragon

Reviewed by Susan65

1Title: Ink & Flowers
Author: J.K. Pendragon
Heroes: Luke/Cooper
Genre: MM Contemporary
Length: 144 Pages
Publisher: Less Than Three Press
Release Date: June 4, 2014
Available at: Less Than Three Press, Amazon, Barnes & Noble and All Romance eBooks Add it to your shelf: Goodreads

Blurb: About to lose his apartment, and desperate to avoid having to move in with his horrendous relatives, shy art student Luke impulsively agrees to a deal from hell: sex with a man he doesn’t know in exchange for a couch to sleep on.

His new “roommate” Cooper is everything that Luke hates: crude, uncouth and covered in tattoos, not to mention openly gay. Luke has all but resigned himself to a miserable fate when it turns out Cooper might want something a little different than he expected.
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Categories: 3.5 Star Ratings, Book Review, LGBT, Published in 2014, Susan65's Reviews | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

S.A. Meade Week Review: Stolen Summer

Reviewed by JustJen

1Title: Stolen Summer
Author: S.A. Meade
Heroes: Evan/Colin
Genre: M/M Contemporary
Length: 210 Pages
Publisher: Totally Bound
Release Date: August 29, 2011
Available at:  Totally Bound, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, All Romance Ebooks
Add it to your shelf: Goodreads

Blurb:  The horror of Evan and Colin’s stolen summer may be over but the nightmares remain. Can their love survive the fallout?

The last thing journalist Evan Harrison expects to hear, when he returns from covering the war in Afghanistan, is that his best friend, Colin Williams, is in love with him.

Colin, an Oxford Professor with a poet’s soul and a roving eye, turns out to be a temptation Evan can’t resist. What he discovers is that sex with Colin is hot, wild and relentless. The two of them embark on a passionate affair and Evan knows he’s going to spend his days with Colin – after one last assignment.

A western journalist in Pakistan is too tempting a target for local insurgents. Evan’s ‘Oh-shit’ sense fails dismally when he is taken hostage and spends four months refusing to let his captors grind him down by clinging to memories of the lover he left behind. Freedom from captivity, however, doesn’t bring freedom from terror. The legacy of Evan’s ordeal results in meltdowns and nightmares that threaten to destroy his life with Colin. He can’t even seek comfort in lovemaking because the pills intended to save his sanity kill his desire.

Evan seizes a chance to put his nightmares behind him by taking one final assignment, covering unrest in Jordan. Colin sees Evan’s decision as the end of a relationship he fought hard to save. If Evan makes it back to England in one piece, winning Colin back will be the toughest assignment he’s ever faced.
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Categories: 4.5 Star Ratings, Author Week, Book Review, JustJen's Reviews, LGBT, Published in 2011 | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Book Review: The Rekindling of Love by Derrick Knight

Reviewed by Susan65

1Title: The Rekindling of Love
Author: Derrick Knight
Series: The Innkeeper #1
Heroes: Dwyer Von Strohm/John Fitzgerald
Genre: M/M Contemporary
Length: 350 Pages
Publisher: Derrick Knight
Release Date: April 10, 2014
Available at: Amazon
Add it to your shelf: Goodreads

Blurb: Dwyer Von Strohm thought his life was perfect. He had a great job as a pharmaceutical sales representative; he lived in Chicago’s premiere gay community, drove an expensive car, and had an unlimited number of hot gay men to pursue. Dwyer thought his was living the life he had always dreamed. Then one day he becomes a causality of a poor economy. In a very short time, Dwyer loses his job, loses his status in the gay community and is reduced to living a lonely existence.

Dwyer’s situation forces him to move back home and live with his parents in the small town of Glasburg Illinois. Dwyer had left Glasburg many years ago because the love of his life, John Fitzgerald, had broken his heart. Dwyer reunites with gay friends from high school who are facing their own life challenges.

Soon Dwyer and John’s paths collide and it is evident both men still have strong feelings for each other. Will Dwyer find it in his heart to forgive John or will he let the demons from their past prevent them from rekindling the love they once shared?
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Categories: 3 Star Ratings, Book Review, LGBT, Published in 2014, Susan65's Reviews | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Rock Stars Week Review: Being Sawyer Knight by Nicola Haken

Reviewed by Susan65

1Title: Being Sawyer Knight
Author: Nicola Haken
Heroes:  Sawyer Knight/Jake Reed
Genre: MM
Length: 317 Pages
Publisher: Nicola Haken
Release Date: May 27, 2014
Available at: Smashwords, Amazon, Barnes & Noble
Add it to your shelf: Goodreads

Blurb: As lead singer and guitarist of the internationally renowned Souls of the Knight, Sawyer Knight is living a life most men can only dream of. He’s surrounded by music, fame, wealth, women throwing themselves at his feet. He has everything…

Yet he has nothing.

Life as one of the world’s most sought after rock stars is tiring, oppressive and lonely. He spends every day being who the world wants him to be, who his manager tells him to be, who his mother expects him to be… all the while fighting against who he really is. Truth is, he’s used to it. He’s actually gotten pretty good at pretending… at living the lie.

Until Jake Reed, his ex-best friend and the only person who’s ever made him ‘feel’, waltzes back into his life as the band’s new head of security. Jake wants Sawyer – always has, always will. Now, he just needs to get Sawyer to admit that he feels the same…

“You will be mine, Sawyer Knight. The faster you try to run the quicker you’ll fall to your knees. Then, Sawyer… then you’ll be too weak to resist.”
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Categories: 4.5 Star Ratings, Book Review, LGBT, Published in 2014, Susan65's Reviews | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Book Review: Stay With Me by S.E. Harmon

Reviewed by Susan65

1Title: Stay With Me
Author: S.E. Harmon
Heroes: Mackenzie William/Jordan Channing
Genre: MM Contemporary
Length: 290 pages
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press
Release Date: April 28, 2014
Available at: Dreamspinner, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, All Romance Ebooks
Add it to your shelf: Goodreads

Blurb: Private investigator Mackenzie Williams’s newest client is everything he’s looking for in a guy—charming, beautiful, intelligent, and successful. There’s only one itty bitty problem—the guy’s not exactly gay. In fact, Jordan Channing is looking for a PI to follow his fiancée. The smart thing would be to thank Jordan for his time, turn Mr. Perfect away (don’t let the door hit you on the rump, thank you very much), and forget he exists.

Of course, Mackenzie has never been accused of doing the smart thing. Being smart aleck is more his MO. Relationships aren’t up his alley, never have been. So why’s he so inexplicably drawn to his new client?

Jordan has always been the high achiever, a man who lives in a focused, controlled, and carefully constructed manner. But for the first time in his life, he has to admit the impossible—another man is getting his engine running on all cylinders. Despite Jordan’s denial, it’s not long before he can no longer resist the strong undercurrents pulling them together. Now Jordan must decide if he can go against everything he’s ever known to have the only love he’s ever wanted.

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Categories: 4 Star Ratings, Book Review, LGBT, Published in 2014, Susan65's Reviews | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Kim Fielding Week Review: The Tin Box

Reviewed by Susan65

18377353Title: The Tin Box
Author: Kim Fielding
Heroes: William Lyon/Colby Anderson
Genre: M/M Contemporary
Length: 210 pages
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press
Release Date: September 20, 2013
Available at: Dreamspinner Press, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, All Romance Ebooks
Add it to your shelf: Goodreads

Blurb: William Lyon’s past forced him to become someone he isn’t. Conflicted and unable to maintain the charade, he separates from his wife and takes a job as caretaker at a former mental hospital. Jelley’s Valley State Insane Asylum was the largest mental hospital in California for well over a century, but it now stands empty. William thinks the decrepit institution is the perfect place to finish his dissertation and wait for his divorce to become final. In town, William meets Colby Anderson, who minds the local store and post office. Unlike William, Colby is cute, upbeat, and flamboyantly out. Although initially put off by Colby’s mannerisms, William comes to value their new friendship, and even accepts Colby’s offer to ease him into the world of gay sex.

William’s self-image begins to change when he discovers a tin box, hidden in an asylum wall since the 1940s. It contains letters secretly written by Bill, a patient who was sent to the asylum for being homosexual. The letters hit close to home, and William comes to care about Bill and his fate. With Colby’s help, he hopes the words written seventy years ago will give him courage to be his true self.

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Categories: 4 Star Ratings, Author Week, Book Review, LGBT, Published in 2013, Susan65's Reviews | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment