Posts Tagged With: Coming Out

Audio Review: Tigerland by Sean Kennedy

Reviewed by Susan65

Title: Tigerland
Author: Sean Kennedy
Narrator: Dave Gillies
Series: Tigers and Devils #1
Heroes: Simon/Declan
Genre: MM Contemporary
Length: 8 Hours, 31 Minutes
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press
Release Date: December 15, 2014
Available at: Amazon, Audible and iTunes
Add it to your shelf: Goodreads

Blurb: After an eventful and sometimes uncomfortably public courtship, Simon Murray and Declan Tyler settled into a comfortable life together. Now retired from the AFL, Declan works as a football commentator; Simon develops programs with queer content for a community television station.

Despite their public professional lives, Simon and Declan manage to keep their private life out of the spotlight. Their major concerns revolve around supporting their friends through infertility and relationship problems—until Greg Heyward, Declan’s ex-partner, outs himself in a transparent bid for attention.

Though Simon and Declan are furious with Greg and his media antics, they can’t agree on what to do about it. Declan insists they should maintain a dignified silence, but both he and Simon keep getting drawn into Heyward’s games. Simon and Declan will once again have to ride out the media storm before they can return their attention to what really matters: each other.
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Categories: 4.5 Star Ratings, Audio Review, LGBT, Published in 2014, Susan65's Reviews | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Book Review: Risk by Baylin Crow

Reviewed by JustJen

Title: Risk
Author: Baylin Crow
Series: N/A
Heroes: Drew/Asher
Genre: MM Contemporary
Length: 271 Pages
Publisher: Baylin Crow
Release Date: April 25, 218
Available at: Amazon
Add it to your shelf: Goodreads

Blurb: We never should’ve been anything more than roommates.

DREW: Life dealing me a hard blow is nothing new. What’s one more sucker punch?

When my uncle offers me a job working at his MMA training center, I jump at the chance to turn my life around…not upside down and questioning everything I know about myself.

Light Heavyweight Champion Asher Ramsey is the definition of a ladies’ man. His stormy gray eyes and inked skin call to the artist in me and make me itch for my pencils and sketch pad so I can capture every detail. If I’m honest, they make me itch to touch every detail too, which confuses me.

After he offers to let me stay in his guest room, I discover there’s more to Asher than he allows the world to see.

ASHER: My life is a lie. A play written and directed by my PR manager.

With the biggest fight of my career only weeks away, my focus is on securing my title. Losing my belt to some new up-and-comer isn’t an option, and I can’t afford any distractions. Or an unwanted attraction.

When Drew begins working at the gym where I train, my priorities waver. To make things worse, I offer to let him stay with me until he finds a place of his own. It’ll be fine. Sure, I’m attracted to him, but I’m an expert at hiding behind the mask of a straight man. Besides, he’s completely off-limits. Not that it matters–we don’t even play for the same team.

What’s the worst that can happen?
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Categories: 4 Star Ratings, Book Review, JustJen's Reviews, LGBT, Published in 2018 | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Audio Review: The Quarterback by Mackenzie Blair

Reviewed by Susan65

Title: The Quarterback
Author: Mackenzie Blair
Narrator: Greg Boudreax
Heroes: Matt Lancaster/Trevor Kim
Genre: MM Contemporary
Length: 9 hrs and 35 mins
Publisher: Riptide Publishing
Release Date: April 17, 2018
Available at: Audible
Add it to your shelf: Goodreads

Blurb: Matt Lancaster is the star quarterback at Bodine College, a small Southern Division II school with an ultra-conservative dean of athletics. Matt is also very much in the closet, and he thinks he’s kept his secret well hidden, until his best friends take him to a happy endings massage parlor and request a male masseuse for him.

In walks Trevor Kim, a gorgeous, pierced, tattooed fellow Bodine student who does massages – without happy endings – to pay for school after his family kicked him out for being gay. Trevor takes one look at Matt and breaks all his own rules about mixing business with pleasure.

Matt needs to keep his scholarship, win the National Championship, and survive his asshole father. Instead, he falls in love. Trevor needs to accept that the football god is meant to end up with him rather than a perky cheerleader. It’s time for a “happily ever after” for both of them. Continue reading

Categories: 4 Star Ratings, Audio Review, LGBT, Published in 2018, Susan65's Reviews | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Audio Review: Point of No Return by N.R. Walker

Reviewed by Susan65

Title: Point of No Return
Author: N.R. Walker
Narrator: Sean Crisden
Series: Turning Point #1
Heroes: Matt & Kira
Genre: M/M Contemporary
Length: 4 hrs and 38 mins
Publisher: Love Lane Books
Release Date: January 18, 2018
Available at: Amazon & Audible
Add it to your shelf: Goodreads

Blurb: Matthew Elliot is one of LA’s best detectives—a smart, tough, closeted gay man. When he falls for his gym instructor, it’s not his colleagues he should be worried about finding out…it’s the bad guys.

Matthew Elliot is one of LA’s best detectives. He’s been labelled the golden boy of the Fab Four: a team of four detectives who’ve closed down drug-rings all over the city. He’s smart, tough and exceptionally good at his job.

He’s also a closeted gay man.

Enter Kira Takeo Franco, the new boxing coach at the gym. Matthew can’t deny his immediate attraction to the man his fellow cops know as Frankie. But in allowing himself to fall in love with a man known to his colleagues, Matthew risks outing them both.

Matt and Kira work to keep their relationship and private lives hidden from Matt’s very public life, fearing it would be detrimental to their careers.

But it’s not the other cops who Matthew should be worried about finding out his deepest, darkest secret…it’s the bad guys.
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Categories: 4.5 Star Ratings, Audio Review, LGBT, Published in 2018, Susan65's Reviews | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Book Review: Tight Quarters by Annabeth Albert

Reviewed by JustJen

Title: Tight Quarters
Author: Annabeth Albert
Series: Out of Uniform #6
Heroes: Spencer & Bacon
Genre: M/M Contemporary
Length: 336 pages
Publisher: Carina Press
Release Date: July 9, 2018
Available at: Carina PressAmazon
Add it to your shelf: Goodreads

Blurb: Petty Officer Bacon, a navy SEAL and ace sharpshooter, has been on the front lines of more than his fair share of dangerous ops. Yet when a minor injury relegates him to the beta team, he’s tasked with what may be his riskiest assignment yet: the silver fox journalist he’s babysitting is the hottest, most charismatic man he’s ever encountered.

Award-winning journalist Spencer Bryant may have been named one of Pride magazine’s most eligible bachelors of the year, but he’s not looking to change his relationship status. He’s a consummate professional who won’t risk his ethics or impeccable reputation by getting involved with a source. Even a sexy-as-hell military man. But while Spencer can resist his physical attraction to Bacon, he has less control over his emotions—especially when the mission goes sideways and the two men are trapped alone.

Getting out of the jungle alive turns out to be easy compared to facing the truth about their feelings for one another back in the real world. And whether or not they can build a future is a different story altogether.
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Categories: 4 Star Ratings, Book Review, JustJen's Reviews, LGBT, Published in 2018 | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Book Review: The Medium by Bonnie Dee

Reviewed by Susan65

Title: The Medium
Author: Bonnie Dee
Heroes: Justin & Albert
Genre: M/M Historical Paranormal
Length: 53k+ words
Publisher: Self-Published
Release Date: May 29, 2018
Available at: Amazon
Add it to your shelf: Goodreads

Blurb: To win a heart, he must risk his soul…

Cast out of his family for being a freak, psychic Justin Crump helps others find peace by using his ability. When he’s called upon to release a distressed soul from a haunted house, a child’s angry spirit draws him into a dark mystery. Equally intriguing is the skeptical homeowner, Albert, a man who has buried his sexuality deeper than the grave.

Albert Henderson humors his mother’s wishes by inviting the medium for a visit. While he doubts Justin’s gifts, he can’t deny one truth: the man stirs desire in him that Albert has spent a lifetime denying. Slowly, the walls of his proper life crumble. And when Justin proposes some emotion-free experimentation, neither imagines it might lead to love…and danger.

After learning the terrifying truth about the deceased child’s persecutor, the two men pursue a perpetrator of great evil. When they coax a confession from their quarry, the vengeful spirit unleashes power nearly beyond control. To free the earthbound ghost from the past that holds it shackled, Justin must risk his own soul. And Albert must find the courage to break free of the chains of doubt that will deny him and Justin the future of which they once only dreamed.

Warning: Contains mention of child sexual abuse.
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Categories: 4 Star Ratings, Book Review, LGBT, Published in 2018, Susan65's Reviews | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Book Review: Believe by Garrett Leigh

Reviewed by Susan65

Title: Believe
Author: Garrett Leigh
Series: Skins #3
Heroes: Rhys & Jevon
Genre: M/M Contemporary
Length: 229 pages
Publisher: Fox Love Press
Release Date: June 26, 2018
Available at: Amazon
Add it to your shelf: Goodreads

Blurb: Flight paramedic Rhys Foster is hooked on adrenaline. By day it’s blood and guts, by night it’s the thrill of the club. With a different face in his bed most nights, he doesn’t have time to be lonely…right?

Entertainer Jevon Campbell is a play therapist like no other—dancer, magician, acrobat, he brings it all to his global mission to help children in need laugh again. He’s on a rare home visit when he encounters enigmatic Rhys in a London bar.

Their connection is instant, but Rhys fast realises Jevon’s easy confidence doesn’t stretch as far as the bedroom. He has no idea how mesmerising he is—how beautiful—and Rhys resolves to show him.

They grow closer, but time isn’t on their side. Rhys seems unable to articulate how he feels, and with Jevon’s imminent departure from the UK hanging over them, their separate commitments could tear them apart forever.

As the days slip by, Rhys must learn to believe he’s worth the happiness Jevon is offering. Continue reading

Categories: 4 Star Ratings, Book Review, LGBT, Published in 2018, Susan65's Reviews | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Book Review: Hush by Lynn Kelling

Reviewed by JustJen

Title: Hush
Author: Lynn Kelling
Series: The Manse #4
Heroes: Rune/Oliver/Jackson
Genre: MMM Contemporary BDSM
Length: 398 Pagees
Publisher: Enspire Publishing
Release Date: April 17, 2018
Available at: Amazon and Barnes & Noble
Add it to your shelf: Goodreads

Blurb: Rune Tooby is a smartass rebel and closeted gay biker with The Born Soldiers motorcycle gang. Rune’s life centered on casual sex and less-than-legal employment, until a pickup truck full of homophobic white supremacists rammed into his bike, destroying his hearing and shattering his life. Learning to live deaf and silent overwhelmed Rune, sending him to humbly beg help from the last people he trusts completely: the rich and powerful Dominants of the Manse, who trained Rune in the arts of BDSM.

Oliver Hughes, cocky day trader and sexual Dominant, lives a life of indulgent luxury. Despite this, he feels adrift and unneeded since his beloved submissive, Jackson Whitney, became absorbed into life as a family man and cardiologist, leaving him little time for his Master. When a meeting between Rune and Oliver is carefully arranged by the leaders of Manse, it starts a wild ride, sweeping up everyone who gets too close to the explosive pair. Rune and Oliver find themselves on a path filled with frustrating miscommunications, rage-filled vengeance, and painfully unearthed secrets.
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Categories: 4.5 Star Ratings, Book Review, JustJen's Reviews, LGBT, Published in 2018 | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Book Review: Fake Out by Eden Finley

Reviewed by Susan65

Title: Fake Out
Author: Eden Finley
Series: Fake Boyfriend #1
Heroes: Maddox/Damon
Genre: MM Contemporary
Length: Not available
Publisher: Eden Finley
Release Date: March 5, 2018
Available at:  Amazon
Add it to your shelf: Goodreads

Blurb: Maddox:

The reason I rarely go home is three simple words: I’m a liar.

When the pressure to marry my childhood sweetheart became too much, I told her I was gay and then fled to New York like my ass was on fire.

Now, five years later and after a drunken encounter, I find myself invited to her wedding. And I have to bring my boyfriend—the boyfriend who doesn’t exist because I’m straight.

At least, I think I am. Meeting the guy I’m bribing to be my boyfriend for the weekend makes me question everything about myself.

Damon:

When my sister asks me to pretend to be some straight guy’s boyfriend, my automatic response is to say no. It’s because of guys like him people don’t believe me when I tell them I’m gay.

But Maddox has something I need.

After an injury that cost me my baseball career, I’m trying to leave my playing days behind and focus on being the best sports agent I can be. Forty-eight hours with my sister’s best friend in exchange for a meeting with a possible client. I can do this.

I just wish he wasn’t so hot. Or that he didn’t kiss like he means it.

Wait … why is the straight guy kissing me?
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Categories: 4 Star Ratings, Book Review, LGBT, Published in 2018, Susan65's Reviews | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Book Review: The Blueprint by S.E. Harmon

Reviewed by Ami

Title: The Blueprint
Author: S.E. Harmon
Series: The Game #1
Heroes: Kelly/Blue
Genre: MM Contemporary
Length: 270 Pages
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press
Release Date: March 13, 2018
Available at:  Amazon and Barnes & Noble
Add it to your shelf: Goodreads

Blurb: Kelly Cannon is satisfied with his life. He has friends, a wonderful family, and a great job. But his love life has reached a new level of pitiful. Why? Well, his heart decided to break all the rules. Don’t fall in love with a straight guy. And definitely don’t fall in love with your best friend.

NFL standout Britton “Blue” Montgomery has pressure coming at him from all sides. From his father, who’s only interested in Blue’s football career. From his coaches, who just want him to play without getting injured again. From the fans. From his agent. And from his mother, who has popped up on the radar after leaving his family years before. And now his relationship with Kelly is on shaky ground, and that frightens Blue more than anything.

When Kelly admits he’s in love with Blue, bonds are tested, and Blue has to decide what’s really important. He doesn’t want to lose the number-one person in his life, but the cost to keep Kelly close might be more than he’s willing to pay.

It’s a good thing his nickname is the Blueprint—it’s time to draft a new set of plans.
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Categories: 2 Star Ratings, Ami's Reviews, Book Review, LGBT, Published in 2018 | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment