Posts Tagged With: Drug/Alcohol Use

Book Review: Meik & Sebastian (Obsessed #4) by Quin Perin

Reviewed by JustJen

Title: Meik & Sebastian
Authors: Quin Perin
Series: Obsessed 4
Heroes: Meik & Sebastian
Genre: MM Contemporary
Length: 77 ages
Publisher: Quin Perin
Release Date: December 13, 2018
Available at: Amazon
Add it to your shelf: Goodreads
Blurb: After ruining his chances with Sebastian, Meik is plagued by the past and haunted by the present. His escape: booze and sex. But the memories of Gabe continuously well up and never ebb. They become an ever-present companion he cannot escape.

Will he hoist himself out of depression to seal the past and face the present or will he lose himself in the bottom of the bottle? Continue reading

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

Book Review: Greyson Fox by T.L. Travis

Reviewed by JustJen

Title: Greyson Fox
Author: T.L. Travis
Series: N/A
Genre: MM Contemporary
Length: 189 Pages
Publisher: Encompass Ink
Release Date: September 28, 2018
Available at: Amazon and Barnes & Noble
Add it to your shelf: Goodreads

Blurb: Greyson Fox, the man, the myth, the legend. The highly sought after, self-proclaimed permanent bachelor. Or so the rumor mill goes. Sure, I’ve heard it all – but the one that stung the most was being called a heartless bastard. Love ‘em and leave ‘em, that one in particular I found to be the most humorous since only one man had ever shared my bed more than once, and he’d long since passed away.

I wasn’t the heartless bastard they all proclaimed me to be, but life had a way of kicking me in the teeth…Repeatedly, so I shut my heart off.
For years I thrived, building my empire and living by my own rules. Until one day, the walls came crashing down around me.

Potential trigger warning:
This book contains brief descriptions of human sex trafficking, as well as two mentions of sexual abuse, including a brief description of oral abuse and an attempted sexual assault. There is some physical abuse by the syndicates hands and a drug overdose so if those are trigger points this may not be the book for you.
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Categories: 3.5 Star Ratings, Book Review, JustJen's Reviews, LGBT, Published in 2018 | Tags: , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Book Review: Lucky by Garrett Leigh

Reviewed by Susan65

Title: Lucky
Author: Garrett Leigh
Series: N/A
Heroes: Dominic Ramos/Lucky Coleman
Genre: MM Conteporary
Length: 282 Pages
Publisher: Fox Love Press
Release Date: September 18, 2018
Available at:  Amazon
Add it to your shelf: Goodreads

Blurb: Dominic Ramos is a Premiership football player with a secret. There are no trophies for being gay in his game. Locked into his rep as the meanest defender on the pitch, keeping his secret is soul-crushing, but love has no place in his sport, even if his soft heart craves it.

Lucky Coleman is on his knees when he meets a man with more money than sense. It’s a Grindr hook-up for cash, not a love match, but dreaming of his desperate, kind eyes earns a place amongst his numerous bad habits.

Meeting once was risky, twice pushes Dom’s courage to the limit. Losing Lucky seems inevitable, but his tight grip on his image counts for nothing when Lucky starts to fall.

Catching him could cost Dom everything, but if he can set his heart free, getting Lucky long term might be a risk worth taking.
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Categories: 4 Star Ratings, Book Review, LGBT, Published in 2018, Susan65's Reviews | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Book Review: Fighter by Carol Lynne

Reviewed by Susan65

Title: Fighter
Author: Carol Lynne
Series: The Brick Yard #1
Heroes: Lucky/Dray
Genre: MM Contemporary
Length: 261 Pages
Publisher: Pride Publishing
Release Date: February 9, 2017
Available at:  Amazon and Barnes & Noble
Add it to your shelf: Goodreads

Blurb: For Lucky Gunn, the hardest fight of his life happens outside the cage.

On the South Side of Chicago sits an old gym called The Brick Yard.

Ten years ago, on a bitterly cold day, Lucky Gunn wandered into The Brick Yard dressed in a threadbare jacket, looking for refuge. He hadn’t expected the owner, Tony Brick, to welcome him with a job and a place to sleep when Lucky’s abusive and drug-addicted mother made it too dangerous to return home.

Dray was a gay man living in a world of straight fighters. When his secret was exposed to the media, he dropped out, giving Lucky a piece of advice-if you want to make it as a MMA fighter, bury the part of yourself that won’t be accepted.

Lucky discovered the cage was the perfect place to keep his demons at bay, but when he learns his trainer and mentor, Brick, is suffering from end-stage cancer, he begins to spiral out of control. After eight years, Dray returns to help Lucky and Brick deal with the devastating news.

With Dray so close, Lucky’s old desires return, and Dray teaches him more than how to fight. Torn between his career and the passion he feels for Dray, Lucky’s past demons resurface in full force, threatening his sanity and his budding relationship with Dray.

Despite leaving the cage years earlier, Dray finds himself in the battle of his life with the only man he’s ever loved. Will he stand and fight or walk away like he did years earlier?

Publisher’s Note: This book has previously been released with Pride Publishing under a different title. It has been considerably expanded and re-edited for re-release and now is book one in The Brick Yard series.
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Categories: 4 Star Ratings, Book Review, LGBT, Published in 2017, Susan65's Reviews | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Audio Review: Max by Bey Deckard

Reviewed by JustJen

32969877Title: Max
Author: Bey Deckard
Narrator: Nick J. Russo
Heroes: Max/Dr. Crane
Genre: MM Thriller
Length: 4 Hours, 48 minutes
Publisher: Bey Deckard
Release Date: November 14, 2016
Available at: Amazon and Audible
Add it to your shelf: Goodreads

Blurb: Fresh out of school, Dr. Crane takes on a new patient who both intrigues and unnerves him. Charming, manipulative, and amoral, Max has exactly the sort of mind Crane finds himself drawn to with fictional characters.

As Max weaves himself into Crane’s life, Crane realizes that while fiction might be safe, Max certainly is not.

When the professional line between them thins, who gets to define where one man ends and the other begins?
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Categories: 5 Star Ratings, Audio Review, LGBT, Published in 2016 | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Book Review: Max by Bey Deckard

Reviewed by JustJen

31685802Title: Max
Author: Bey Deckard
Heroes: Max/Crane
Genre: MM Thriller
Length: 160 Pages
Publisher: Bey Deckard
Release Date: September 30, 2016
Available at: Amazon and Barnes & Noble
Add it to your shelf: Goodreads

Blurb:  Fresh out of school, Dr. Crane takes on a new patient who both intrigues and unnerves him. Charming, manipulative, and amoral, Max has exactly the sort of mind Crane finds himself drawn to with fictional characters.

As Max weaves himself into Crane’s life, Crane realizes that while fiction might be safe, Max certainly is not.

When the professional line between them thins, who gets to define where one man ends and the other begins?
Continue reading

Categories: 5 Star Ratings, Book Review, JustJen's Reviews, LGBT, Published in 2016 | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Book Review: Torn by Shawn Bailey

Reviewed by Susan65

30833600Title: Torn
Author: Shawn Bailey
Heroes: Justin/Sam
Genre: MM Contemporary
Length: 102 Pages
Publisher: MLR Press
Release Date: July 3, 2016
Available at:  Amazon and Barnes & Noble
Add it to your shelf: Goodreads

Blurb: A down and out club host find happiness in the arms of a stranger.

Club host Sam Mason and his lover Tony gets into a screaming match in the French Quarter. Tony wants Sam to prostitute himself to earn money to support Tony’s drug habit. In a drastic effort to free himself of Tony, Sam propositions a man on the street and offers him the best blowjob he’d ever had it he takes him somewhere. The man takes one look at him and agrees.

Attorney Justin Quick can’t believe his luck when a green-eyed cutie approaches him with the best offer he had in years. Ethically he’s sworn to get the young man out of danger, but the man in him knows it’s an offer he’d be foolish to refuse.

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Categories: 3.5 Star Ratings, Book Review, LGBT, Published in 2016, Susan65's Reviews | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Book Review: Bootleg Diva: Confessions of a Quarterback Princess by Levi Brody by Mercy Celeste

Reviewed by Susan65

30298306Title: Bootleg Diva
Author: Mercy Celeste
Series: Southern Scrimmage #4
Heroes: Levi Brody
Genre: MM Contemporary
Length: 232 Pages
Publisher: Mercy Celeste
Release Date: June 5, 2016
Available at:  Amazon and Barnes & Noble
Add it to your shelf: Goodreads

Blurb: A Southern Scrimmage Biography

All heroes need an origins story.

From trailer park to the Super Dome.
Everybody’s All-American quarterback by day.
Infamous exotic dancer by night.

Levi Brody is one of the undisputed greats of the game. With two Super Bowl rings, one MVP, three Pro-Bowl appearances, three National Championships, three SEC Championships and four State High School championships Levi has indeed left his mark on the sport, but it’s all a load of crap.
This is my origin story and like all good origin stories, this one lies somewhere-
Between the helmet and the tiara.

The story of the rise and fall of the first fictional gay quarterback in the NFL.
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Categories: 5 Star Ratings, Book Review, LGBT, Published in 2016, Susan65's Reviews | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Book Review: Scars and Secrets by Avril Ashton

Reviewed by JustJen

29383384Title: Scars and Secrets
Author: Avril Ashton
Series: Loose Ends #1
Heroes: Donovan/Levi
Genre: MM Contemporary
Length: 218 Pages
Publisher: Sinner’s Haven Publishing
Release Date: April 29, 2016
Available at: Amazon and Barnes & Noble
Add it to your shelf: Goodreads

Blurb:  After an undercover assignment that changed his life forever, FBI agent Donovan Cintron is barely hanging on to sanity. His new mission is to forget, by any means necessary, so he tries his hardest. Pills. Booze. The warm bodies that never quite measure up to what he’d had. What he’d lost. It’s almost a relief when he learns his identity might be compromised—except he’s not the only one exposed. So is the husband he hasn’t stopped needing all these years later. He’d been aching to die, but for Levi Nieto, Donovan will live. To protect. To regret. To remember.

The realization that everything he loved was a farce sent Levi Nieto spinning out of control, and running away from the memories. Now Donovan is back in his life, still fully entrenched in darkness. Their physical connection is one thing, but the truth of who they are to each other remains trapped among the anger, violence and lies suffocating them. Fixing what’s broken will take more than each man exposing his scars. Secrets—and blood—must be spilled.
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Categories: 4 Star Ratings, Book Review, JustJen's Reviews, LGBT, Published in 2016 | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Book Review: Unquiet by Melanie Hansen

Reviewed by JustJen

26833425Title: Unquiet
Author: Melanie Hansen
Series: Resilient Love #3
Heroes: Loren Smith/Eliot Devlin
Genre: MM Contemporary
Length: 296 Pages
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press
Release Date: January 22, 2016
Available at: Amazon and Barnes & Noble
Add it to your shelf: Goodreads

Blurb:  Loren Smith has been in love with Eliot Devlin almost his entire life. During their turbulent childhood and teen years, Loren didn’t always understand Eliot, and sometimes he could be a challenge, but Eliot was the only one to ever truly ease Loren’s deep loneliness and accept him. When Eliot’s increasingly erratic and self-destructive behavior culminates in a suicide attempt at seventeen, Loren is devastated.

Upon meeting again by chance nine years later, Loren is enjoying a successful career as a police officer while Eliot’s life has been a constant struggle for stability. In and out of mental hospitals, with a rap sheet a mile long, he continues to be buffeted by the twin storms of mania and depression. Loren’s love and protectiveness for Eliot are deeply ingrained in him, however, and their feelings for each other are quickly rekindled.

Loren has issues of his own he’s dealing with, and trying to understand and cope with Eliot’s bipolar disorder isn’t easy. They believe they’re meant to be, and Eliot brings a fulfillment to Loren’s life that no one else will ever match. But as they both come to realize, love by itself can’t cure all.
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Categories: 4.5 Star Ratings, Book Review, JustJen's Reviews, LGBT, Published in 2016 | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment