Posts Tagged With: Homophobia

Audio Review: Mr. Frosty Pants by Leta Blake

Reviewed by Susan65

Title: Mr. Frosty Pants
Author: Leta Blake
Narrator: John Solo
Series: Home for the Holidays #1
Heroes:  Casey & Joel
Genre: M/M Contemporary
Length: 10 hrs and 47 mins
Publisher: Leta Blake Books
Release Date: November 11, 2019
Available at: Amazon & Audible
Add it to your shelf: Goodreads

Blurb: Frosty former friends get a steamy second chance in this Christmas gay romance!

Can true love warm his frozen heart?

When Casey Stevens went away to college four years ago, he ghosted on his straight best friend, Joel Vreeland. He hoped time and distance would lessen the unrequited affection he felt, but all it did was make him miss Joel more. Home for the holidays, Casey hopes they might find a way to be friends again. But Joel’s frosty reception reminds Casey of just how hard he had to fight to be Joel’s friend in the first place. It’s going to take a Christmas miracle to get past that cool façade again.

Joel isn’t as straight as Casey believes, and his years of pining for Casey have left him hurting and alone, caring for his abusive father and struggling to get by. Unable to trust anyone except his rescue dog – and with no reason to believe Casey is interested in him for more than a holiday fling – Joel’s icy heart might shatter before it can thaw.

Can Casey and Joel’s love overcome mistrust, parental rejection, class differences, and four long years apart? Mr. Frosty Pants is a stand-alone, Christmas gay romance by Leta Blake featuring a virgin hero, childhood friends-to-lovers, second chance romance, and steamy mm first times. Continue reading

Categories: 4 Star Ratings, Audio Review, LGBT, Published in 2019, Susan65's Reviews | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Book Review: A Heart Divided by T.L. Travis

Reviewed by Susan65

Title: A Heart Divided
Author: T.L. Travis
Series: Social Sinners #3
Heroes: Mickey/Benny/River
Genre: M/M/M Contemporary
Length: 184 pages
Publisher: Encompass Ink
Release Date: March 19, 2019
Available at: Amazon
Add it to your shelf: Goodreads

Blurb: How can one’s heart be divided without someone feeling left out, even if it’s yourself?

That was the challenge Mickey Payne, bass player for the band Social Sinners, was tasked with when he fell in love with two men. “The heart wants what the heart wants, and you’d be a fool to deny it,” his mother told him when he brought his concerns to her over the unconventional relationship he was in.

Entering into the triad, he of course had his reservations, but all doubt gets cast aside when they need his help.

Will his heart be able to survive? Continue reading

Categories: 4 Star Ratings, Book Review, LGBT, Published in 2019, Susan65's Reviews | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Book Review: Behind the Lights (Social Sinners #1) by T.L. Travis

Reviewed by Susan65

Title: Behind the Lights
Author: .T.L Travis
Series: Social Sinners #1
Heroes: Joey Hayes/Ricky “Stoli” Branson
Genre: M/M Contemporary
Length: 172 Pages
Publisher: Encompass Ink
Release Date: June 9, 2018
Available at: Amazon and Barnes & Noble
Add it to your shelf: Goodreads

Blurb: Joey Hayes and his best friend Ricky Branson have been together through the good times, as well as the bad. Attending their first concert as teens set the path for their futures in motion. Shortly after, the pair joined band class where they meet Ethan and Mick and the foursome formed the metal band, Social Sinners.

Things were going according to plan until Lucas Shane entered their lives, disrupting the flow and testing the strength of their friendship.

When Joey spirals down a dark path after catching his cheating boyfriend, this tasked the other three band members with making a difficult decision that could end his career as their lead singer.
Continue reading

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

Book Review: Aftermath by Tanya Chris

Reviewed by JustJen

Title: Aftermath
Author: Tanya Chris
Series: Aftermath #3
Heroes: Brooks/Casey
Genre: MM Contemporary BDSM
Length: 332 Pages
Publisher: Tanya Chris Publishing
Release Date: June 27, 2019
Available at: Amazon
Add it to your shelf: Goodreads

Blurb: The Ever After series concludes in Aftermath. Tragedy, redemption, love… Ever After

Once upon a time, Casey flirted with a pretty boy at a bar, and that changed everything. Recently released from jail, he’s starting to rebuild without the family who raised him to hate himself. He’s got a new job, a room at his aunt’s, and community service hours at an LGBTQIA community center. But his biggest challenge is figuring out how to live as the one thing his father and brother drilled into him he could never be: a gay man.

Once upon a time, Brooks was a confident Dom with a particular taste for bigger men. But since his run-in with a dangerous homophobe, he’s lost his touch. Big, buff guys are hot but scary, and hurting people isn’t as much fun as it used to be.

Until he meets Casey, the big guy with the problematic past. Casey’s willing to do anything, but does his submission stem from healthy kink or from an unhealthy need to be punished? And is Brooks doling out release or revenge? Two people who share a past as violent as theirs could never fall in love. Unless, somewhere in the aftermath, there’s forgiveness.
Continue reading

Categories: 3.5 Star Ratings, Book Review, JustJen's Reviews, LGBT, Published in 2019 | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Book Review: Fresh Kill by Adam Carpenter

Reviewed by JustJen

Title: Fresh Kill
Author: Adam Carpenter
Series: The Jimmy McSwain Files #6
Hero: Jimmy McSwain
Genre: MM Contemporary
Length: 276 Pages
Publisher: MLR Press
Release Date: April 11, 2019
Available at: Amazon and Barnes & Noble
Add it to your shelf: Goodreads

Blurb: Jimmy McSwain returns, but the question lingers, now that he has finally solved the fifteen-year-old murder of his NYPD cop-father, Joseph, who has he become?

Busy concentrating on family issues, Jimmy hasn’t taken a new case in nearly three months, and when a call comes in from Philip Connelly, who wants proof of his wife, Myra’s, cheating, Jimmy is torn. Take the case, or say no. He rejects it, only to learn a week later that Philip has been found dead in a park on Staten Island. The police believe it was suicide, but Myra—a self-admitted adulteress—is convinced he was murdered. Jimmy agrees to take the case. But it seems his decision to rejoin the world has also affected the other areas of his life: his sister is facing a health crisis, an old friend from his father’s past has resurfaced, and his lover, Captain Francis X. Frisano, is working a difficult case in Chelsea where gay men are being attacked.

If that wasn’t enough, Jimmy is on the hunt to bring down his new nemesis, the criminal mastermind Mr. Wu-Tin. A fire at one of his warehouses stirs fear in Jimmy that the man is trying to destroy evidence of his crimes. That’s when life throws him a twist, and suddenly Jimmy feels that just as he’s hoping to find answers, new mysteries emerge about whether the path he’s on leads to a fresh start, or a fresh kill.
Continue reading

Categories: 4.5 Star Ratings, Book Review, JustJen's Reviews, LGBT, Published in 2019 | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Book Review: Crossing the Touchline by Jay Hogan

Reviewed by Susan65

Title: Crossing the Touchline
Author: Jay Hogan
Series: Auckland Med. #2
Heroes: Reuben & Cameron
Genre: M/M Contemporary
Length: 302 pages
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press
Release Date: April 23, 2019
Available at: Dreamspinner Press & Amazon
Add it to your shelf: Goodreads

Blurb: What if you’ve worked your whole life for a dream, to play rugby for the most successful sports team on the planet, the New Zealand All Blacks?

What if that dream is so close you can smell it?

What if you meet someone?

What if you fall in love?

What if your dream will cost the man who’s stolen your heart?

And what if the dream changes?

Reuben Taylor has a choice to make.

Cameron Wano is that choice. Continue reading

Categories: 4 Star Ratings, Book Review, LGBT, Published in 2019, Susan65's Reviews | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Book Review: The Faller by Daniel de Lorne

Reviewed by Ami

Title: The Faller
Author: Daniel de Lorne
Series: 2018 Advent Calendar – Warmest Wishes
Heroes: Charlie & Jack
Genre: M/M Historical
Length: 46 pages
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press
Release Date: December 1, 2018
Available at: Dreamspinner Press & Amazon
Add it to your shelf: Goodreads

Blurb: Being caught with another man sends Charlie Young fleeing his family to the forests of southwestern Australia to scrape together steamer-passage to the big smoke of London. But life as a timber faller isn’t easy and it’s made worse when the men he works with are brash, bigoted, and often brutal. All except Jack Tapper, who’s the kind of gentle giant that sets Charlie’s heart racing.

While the other men head into town for Christmas, it’s just Charlie and Jack and acres of forest. But trees tell no tales and a few days alone is the perfect opportunity to indulge a bourgeoning passion. When the men return and find things not as they once were, Charlie and Jack have to make the hard decisions about whether to stay where they are or run for their lives. Continue reading

Categories: 3.5 Star Ratings, Ami's Reviews, Book Review, LGBT, Published in 2018 | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

AudioBook Review: Bad to the Bone by Nicki Bennett

Reviewed by Susan65

Title: Bad to the Bone
Author: Nicki Bennett
Narrator: Colin Darcy
Series: Dreamspun Desires #58
Heroes: Alex and Ricky Lee
Genre: MM Contemporary
Length: 5 hours and 54 minutes
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press
Release Date: 8/24/18
Available at:  Amazon, Audible and iTunes
Add it to your shelf: Goodreads

Blurb:

Alex can’t think of himself as anything but a failure. In high school, he was on the fast track to a career in pro football when he forged an unlikely friendship with a half-Comanche boy from the wrong part of town, Ricky Lee Jennings. Their shared love of books could have grown into more—but a homophobic teammate attacked Ricky Lee, and Alex wouldn’t risk his scholarship to defend him. Ricky Lee was kicked out of school, and Alex never heard from him again. Now Alex’s glory days are nothing but a memory. An injury ended his football aspirations, his marriage fell apart, and his dreams of making a difference as an environmental lobbyist are as dead as his fantasies of sports stardom. But all that could change in one magical night, when Ricky Lee shows up at their high-school reunion.
Continue reading

Categories: 4 Star Ratings, Audio Review, LGBT, Published in 2018, Susan65's Reviews | 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.
Continue reading

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

Book Review: Aftershock by Tanya Chris

Reviewed by JustJen

Title: Aftershock
Author: Tanya Chris
Series: Ever After #2
Heroes: Syed/Dashiell
Genre: MM BDSM
Length: 198 Pages
Publisher: Tanya Chris Publishing
Release Date: August 14, 2018
Available at: Amazon
Add it to your shelf: Goodreads

Blurb: Being acquitted of Jamie’s murder won’t bring him back. Syed might be free, but he’s lost his lover and his sub, along with his sense of control, his libido, his friends, and the stomach to inflict the kind of pain Jamie thrived on. Even his high-rise apartment doesn’t suit him anymore.

Dashiell is drawn to the handsome man he represented in court, but he’s promised himself never to get involved with another confident playboy. His next boyfriend—if he can find such a thing—will see him as something more than a backup plan for a better offer. And how could he ever give a man like Syed what he wants anyway?

Dashiell fears the day Syed will ask him to bear more pain than he can handle as Syed struggles to reconcile how he’s coming to feel about Dashiell with how he still feels about Jamie. Can their fledgling relationship survive the discovery that Syed’s new sub might be representing the man who murdered his last sub?

Jamie deserves justice, Dashiell deserves love, and Syed wants to be the one to give both these men exactly what they need.
Continue reading

Categories: 4.5 Star Ratings, Book Review, JustJen's Reviews, LGBT, Published in 2018 | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment