Posts Tagged With: Homophobia

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: More Than Just a Good Book by Sloan Parker

Reviewed by Susan65

Title: More Than Just a Good Book, A Novel
Author: Sloan Parker
Heroes: Scott Murphy and Mark Lewis
Genre: M/M Contemporary
Length: 164 Pages
Publisher: Sloan Parker Press
Release Date: November 18, 2013
Available at: Smashwords, Amazon, All Romance eBooks & Barnes and Noble
Add it to your shelf: Goodreads & Booklikes

Blurb: Shy, nervous Scott is a big book geek, and fellow student Mark is a bit controlling between the sheets. During one afternoon at the university library, they find they are the perfect match. Now they have to find out if they can keep on proving that some things are even more enjoyable than a good book.

As the two begin exploring their most secret sexual fantasies, neither can imagine walking away. With only one semester left before they head off in different directions, they discover it’s impossible to avoid their growing feelings for each other. When a desperate bully tries to destroy Mark’s chance at the career he’s always wanted and tries to keep him away from Scott, the two lovers must come to terms with exactly what it means to be in love with someone—and how to be brave enough to go after what it is they truly want.

This work contains graphic language and explicit sexual content between two men, including some light BDSM (spanking and bondage). Intended for adult audiences only.

Author’s Note:
This is the expanded, full-length novel. The original, free short story is chapter one of this novel. Continue reading

Categories: 3.5 Star Ratings, Book Review, LGBT, Published in 2013, Susan65's Reviews | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Heidi Cullinan Week Review: Let It Snow

Reviewed by Susan65

Title: Let It Snow
Author: Heidi Cullinan
Series: Minnesota Christmas #1
Heroes: Frankie Blackburn and Marcus Gardner
Genre: M/M Contemporary
Length: 228 Pages
Publisher: Samhain Publishing
Release Date: November 26, 2013
Available at: Samhain Publishing, Amazon, All Romance eBooks & Barnes and Noble
Add it to your shelf: Goodreads & Booklikes

Blurb: The weather outside is frightful, but this Minnesota northwoods cabin is getting pretty hot.

Stylist Frankie Blackburn never meant to get lost in Logan, Minnesota, but his malfunctioning GPS felt otherwise, and a record-breaking snowfall ensures he won’t be heading back to Minneapolis anytime soon. Being rescued by three sexy lumberjacks is fine as a fantasy, but in reality the biggest of the bears is awfully cranky and seems ready to gobble Frankie right up.

Marcus Gardner wasn’t always a lumberjack—once a high-powered Minneapolis lawyer, he’s come home to Logan to lick his wounds, not play with a sassy city twink who might as well have stepped directly out of his past. But as the northwinds blow and guards come down, Frankie and Marcus find they have a lot more in common than they don’t. Could the man who won’t live in the country and the man who won’t go back to the city truly find a home together? Because the longer it snows, the deeper they fall in love, and all they want for Christmas is each other.

Warning: Contains power outages, excessive snowfall, and incredibly sexy bears. Continue reading

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

Book Review: Waiting for Rain by Susan Mac Nicol

Reviewed by Susan65

Title: Waiting for Rain
Author: Susan Mac Nicol
Heroes: Rain Engel and Toby Prentiss
Genre: M/M Contemporary
Length: 280 Pages
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press
Release Date: February 24, 2014
Available at: Dreamspinner Press, Amazon, All Romance eBooks & Barnes and Noble
Add it to your shelf: Goodreads & Booklikes

Blurb: The village of Stamford, the quintessential chocolate box English scene, seemed an impossible dream for foster kid Toby Prentiss. Now he’s found a home among the haystacks and village fairs as the general manager for the Duck and Drake Hotel. With the fears and demons from his youth hidden away in this bucolic oasis, he’s very protective of who he lets in. Until he stumbles across shirtless carpenter Rain Engel building the hotel’s new custom-designed bar.

Working in the countryside, Rain prepared to face his biggest fear: sheep. He didn’t expect to deal with his second biggest fear: commitment. Toby’s controlled, tough guy façade coupled with his “find happiness where you can” optimism calls to Rain like nothing before. While Rain may be an exhibitionist, his romantic history forces him to hold his emotions close. As their relationship develops, secrets from their pasts drive a wedge between them: the ex-boyfriend who tore apart Rain’s trust and Toby’s history with the law. But can the secrets hiding among the quirky villagers bring them together? With missing sheep, pole dancing at the winter festival, and a crippling drought, everyone is waiting for Rain. Continue reading

Categories: 4 Star Ratings, Book Review, LGBT, Published in 2014, Susan65's Reviews | Tags: , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Book Review: Last First Kiss by Diane Adams

Reviewed by Susan65

Title: Last First Kiss
Author: Diane Adams
Series: Southern Comfort #1
Heroes: Trent Foster and Gage Harris
Genre: M/M Contemporary
Length: 275 Pages
Publisher: Love Lane Books
Release Date: January 18, 2014
Available at: Love Lane Books, Amazon, All Romance eBooks & Barnes and Noble
Add it to your shelf: Goodreads & Booklikes

Blurb: Eighteen-year-old Gage Harris is not a part of twenty-five year old Trent Foster’s plans. He likes Gage but the intense attraction between them makes remaining just friends unlikely, and the young farmer with two small children is a complication Trent doesn’t need.

Despite all the reasons to stay away, Trent is pulled into the small family. Gage’s boys are delightful and the young man’s honesty and genuine affection impossible to resist. Trent is intrigued by a life so different from everything he’s known. As he struggles to reconcile his plans with his feelings Trent begins to suspect that his random offer of a ride in the rain might lead straight to his last first kiss. Continue reading

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

Book Review: Shaking the Sugar Tree by Nick Wilgus

Reviewed by Susan65

Title: Shaking the Sugar Tree
Author: Nick Wilgus
Heroes: Wiley Cantrell and Jackson Ledbetter
Genre: M/M Contemporary
Length: 304 Pages
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press
Release Date: January 31, 2014
Available at: Dreamspinner Press, Amazon, All Romance eBooks & Barnes and Noble
Add it to your shelf: Goodreads & Booklikes

Blurb: Wise-cracking Wiley Cantrell is loud and roaringly outrageous—and he needs to be to keep his deeply religious neighbors and family in the Deep South at bay. A failed writer on food stamps, Wiley works a minimum wage job and barely manages to keep himself and his deaf son, Noah, more than a stone’s throw away from Dumpster-diving.

Noah was a meth baby and has the birth defects to prove it. He sees how lonely his father is and tries to help him find a boyfriend while Wiley struggles to help Noah have a relationship with his incarcerated mother, who believes the best way to feed a child is with a slingshot. No wonder Noah becomes Wiley’s biggest supporter when Boston nurse Jackson Ledbetter walks past Wiley’s cash register and sets his sugar tree on fire.

Jackson falls like a wet mule wearing concrete boots for Wiley’s sense of humor. And while Wiley represents much of the best of the South, Jackson is hiding a secret that could threaten this new family in the making.

When North meets South, the cultural misunderstandings are many, but so are the laughs, and the tears, but, as they say down in Dixie, it’s all good. Continue reading

Categories: 5 Star Ratings, Book Review, LGBT, Published in 2014, Susan65's Reviews | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

Book Review: Dumped in Oz by Andrew Grey

Reviewed by Susan65

Title:  Dumped in Oz
Author: Andrew Grey
Series: Tales from Kansas #1
Heroes: Lyle Powers and Roger Kypers
Genre: M/M Contemporary
Length: 164 Pages
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press
Release Date: January 15, 2014
Available at: Dreamspinner Press, Amazon, All Romance eBooks & Barnes and Noble
Add it to your shelf: Goodreads & Booklikes

Blurb: Because of an opportunity he’d be a fool to turn down; Lyle Powers transfers to his company’s warehouse in central Kansas. The last thing he expects is to meet another gay man in the small town, let alone one who captures his interest.

Roger Kypers is a recovering alcoholic with a twelve-year-old daughter he only gets to see for part of the summer. Neither Lyle nor Roger is looking for a relationship, and they fumble at the start, yet emotions build as Roger shows Lyle the landmarks of Oz.

But when Roger’s wicked witch of an ex-wife threatens to take his daughter away for good if he doesn’t act “normally,” he’s faced with the challenge of letting her get away with it, or fighting to accept himself and standing up for what he knows is right. Continue reading

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

Book Review: Glory Lands by Vastine Bondurant

Reviewed by Heather C

Title: Glory Lands
Author: Vastine Bondurant
Series: Texas Piney Woods #1
Heroes: Glory Lands & Emory Joe Logan
Genre: M/M Historical Romance
Length: 146 pages
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press
Release Date: January 22, 2014
Available at: Dreamspinner Press
Add it to your shelf: Goodreads

Blurb: Rural East Texas, 1931. Preacher’s son Emory Joe Logan and a fiddler from Shreveport, Glory Lands, meet and form a tender bond. When they are caught and arrested for homosexual acts by Sheriff Elihu Bishop, the lawman’s sanctimonious bigotry threatens to rip the young men from their families.

Emory Joe’s father, Pastor Charles Logan, is brought to his knees in terror, confusion, and anger. He still regrets not standing up against Bishop when the lawman murdered a youth in cold blood nine years ago.

Now there’s no longer a choice for the preacher to stand up to the lawman. Cold-blooded justice, bigotry-disguised-as-religion, and hatred take on a whole new meaning when they’re standing on his doorstep, ready to take the son he loves. Continue reading

Categories: 4.5 Star Ratings, Book Review, Heather C's Reviews, LGBT, Published in 2014 | Tags: , , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Book Review: Offside Chance by Mercy Celeste

Reviewed by Susan65

Title:  Offside Chance
Author: Mercy Celeste
Series: Southern Scrimmage #3
Heroes: Jude Brody and William “Slayer” Slater
Genre: M/M Contemporary
Length: 300 pages
Publisher: Self Published
Release Date: January 11, 2014
Available at: Amazon, All Romance eBooks & Barnes and Noble
Add it to your shelf: Goodreads & Booklikes

Blurb: Judah Brody meets William Slater and it’s loathe at first sight.

Jude had spent his whole life in his famous brother’s shadow. Returning to New Orleans seemed like a good idea now that Levi was back home. But Jude couldn’t turn around without something of Levi’s getting in his way. In this case it’s Levi’s best friend, a three hundred pound knuckle-dragger named Slayer, who likes strippers, football, porn and making Jude’s life miserable—not necessarily in that order.

William Slater’s season couldn’t get much worse. He lost his house to fire, his contract was set to expire, and his prospects of getting picked up by another team were slim to none. House sitting for his best friend was the only bright spot in an otherwise bleak New Orleans winter. Until Levi’s stuck up nerd of a brother came to stay.

A freak winter snow storm, deep familial secrets, and a whole lot of male/male bonding wasn’t exactly in the game plan. But bragging rights were on the line and there wasn’t an offside chance in hell of this game going into overtime Continue reading

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