Posts Tagged With: Short Story

Book Review: The Marine Next Door by Terry O’Reilly

Reviewed by Morgan 

28435108Title: The Marine Next Door
Author: Terry O’Reilly
Heroes: Julian Reynolds/Tate Butler
Genre: MM Contemporary
Length: 79 Pages
Publisher: JMS Books
Release Date: January 3, 2016
Available at:  Amazon and Barnes & Noble
Add it to your shelf: Goodreads

Blurb:  Schoolteacher Julian Reynolds is disillusioned with the seedier side of gay life in New York City with its self-absorption, vanity, and preoccupation with sex. When his long-time relationship with his high school sweetheart ends, he returns to his hometown and vows to live a simple life free of the extremes of the gay lifestyle and romantic entanglements. With that end in mind, he rents the carriage house next door to a large Tudor-style home.

Tate Butler, a former student of Julian’s, lives in the big house with his mother. Tate is bitter and withdrawn after losing a leg while serving in the Marine Corps during the war in Afghanistan. Fearing rejection from his mother and blaming himself for his father’s death, Tate stays firmly in the closet and punishes himself by refusing to learn how to walk again.

Can Tate and Julian help heal each other’s pasts and forge a real and lasting future together? Or will the driveway that separates their houses prove too wide a gulf to cross?
Continue reading

Categories: 3 Star Ratings, Book Review, LGBT, Morgan's Reviews, Published in 2016 | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Book Review: Home is Where the Christmas Trees Are by CJane Elliott

Reviewed by Morgan 

28090227Title: Home is Where the Christmas Trees Are
Author: CJane Elliott
Series: Sleigh Ride – 2015 Advent Calendar
Heroes: Dex Crawford/Ed Alcott
Genre: MM Contemporary
Length: 47 Pages
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press
Release Date: December 1, 2015
Available at:  Amazon and Barnes & Noble
Add it to your shelf: Goodreads

Blurb:  After the tragic death of his sister, Jan, Dex Crawford leaves his life in Portland to take care of his twelve-year-old niece, Rowan. He gets a job as a physical therapist and tries to be a good guardian to Rowan, but they’re both grieving. The Christmas holidays hit Dex especially hard this year. He’d always left it to Jan to make the season merry, and now it’s up to him. Two weeks before Christmas, Dex has yet to even put up a Christmas tree.

Things go from bad to worse when Rowan’s clarinet is stolen right before the school holiday concert. Dex’s life begins to turn around when he accompanies Rowan to school to talk to her band teacher, Ed Alcott. Handsome and kind, Ed likes kids, music, and holiday decorations. Dex comes to think of him as his very own Christmas elf. Ed brings with him everything that’s been missing in Dex’s life: the possibility of love, home, and celebration… and Christmas trees.
Continue reading

Categories: 2.5 Star Ratings, Book Review, LGBT, Morgan's Reviews, Published in 2015, Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Book Review: Teddy Bear Christmas by C.C. Bridges

Reviewed by Morgan 

28077421Title: Teddy Bear Christmas
Author: C.C. Bridges
Series: Sleigh Ride – 2015 Advent Calendar
Heroes: Tyler Martin/Aaron Klein
Genre: MM Contemporary
Length: 31 Pages
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press
Release Date: December 1, 2015
Available at:  Amazon and Barnes & Noble
Add it to your shelf: Goodreads

Blurb:  Two lonely men, a lost teddy bear, and a sprinkle of holiday magic….

On a snowy night before Christmas Eve, Tyler Martin finds himself stuck in a Chicago airport, unable to get home to his family on the East Coast. After missing last year due to his jerk of an ex-boyfriend, the idea of not making it this time hurts. When he finds a lost teddy bear in the waiting area, his night changes for the better.

Aaron Klein is a bored airport worker, taking the Christmas shift because he’s Jewish. He doesn’t expect to hit it off with the hot guy who brings a lost teddy bear to his desk, but it might end up being everything he didn’t know he was looking for.
Continue reading

Categories: 3 Star Ratings, Book Review, LGBT, Morgan's Reviews, Published in 2015 | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Book Review: His Heart’s Desire by J.P. Barnaby

Reviewed by Morgan 

28095661Title: His Heart’s Desire
Author: J.P. Barnaby
Hero: Matthew Carpenter
Genre: MM Fantasy
Length: 26 Pages
Publisher: J.P. Barnaby
Release Date: December 2, 2015
Available at:  Amazon
Add it to your shelf: Goodreads

Blurb:  If Santa Claus could have one wish, what would it be?

Each century, Father Time selects a new Santa Claus. In return for his service, the lucky St Nick receives his heart’s greatest desire. Unfortunately, Matthew Carpenter is down to his last night as Santa and has no idea what his heart desires.

Short story previously released as part of the ‘Twas a Dark and Delicious Christmas, Manlove Edition anthology.
Continue reading

Categories: 5 Star Ratings, Book Review, LGBT, Morgan's Reviews, Published in 2015, Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Book Review: A Sliver of Sunset by Devon Rhodes

Reviewed by Morgan 

28453150Title: A Sliver of Sunset
Author: Devon Rhodes
Heroes: Angelo/Dominic
Genre: MM Paranormal
Length: 55 Pages
Publisher: Pride Publishing
Release Date: January 5, 2016
Available at:  Amazon and Barnes & Noble
Add it to your shelf: Goodreads

Blurb:  From one-night stand to nurse and patient—is it crazy to expect more?

Angelo has somehow developed leukemia—the only paranormal ever known to do so—and the doctors are mystified as to the cause. The cure requires him to repress his shifter side with a chemical inhibitor and be entirely human while he goes through chemotherapy, which contributes to some interesting situations he never would have foreseen—things like ‘misplacing’ his favorite bar, Unconventional, and getting picked up by a human without realizing it’s his mate.

Dominic can’t believe his luck when bravely striking up a conversation with the hottest guy he’s ever seen leads to the best sex he’s ever had. When he wakes up—no surprise—Angelo is gone. A week later, he’s shocked when he walks in to meet a new oncology patient to find Angelo fighting for his life and dependent upon his care.

Will their timing ever improve, or will Angelo’s time run out before they get a chance?

Continue reading

Categories: 3 Star Ratings, Book Review, LGBT, Morgan's Reviews, Published in 2016, Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Book Review: Have Yourself a Merry Little Sexmas by Kate Lowell

Reviewed by Morgan 

28148644Title: Have Yourself a Merry Little Sexmas
Author: Kate Lowell
Heroes: Carter/Thilo
Genre: MM Contemporary
Length: 96 Pages
Publisher: Loose Id
Release Date: December 7, 2015
Available at:  Amazon and Barnes & Noble
Add it to your shelf: Goodreads

Blurb:  Carter’s been on his own since he came out at sixteen. He was one of the lucky ones–when coffee shop wages weren’t cutting it and he was on the edge of being homeless again, a kind stranger got him a fake ID and work as a dancer in a strip club. Since then, he’s saved his money, enough for a mortgage on a small fixer-upper of a house. He’s even started thinking about the future.

Given his career choice, the possibility of a normal relationship doesn’t get a second thought.

Thilo, a cute but awkward accountant, has never had his own apartment, never lived away from his family, never had a relationship that went farther than a kiss and a hug. Now he’s a thousand miles away from home, facing his first ever holiday season by himself.

His Christmas present–and Snowmageddon–is about to change that. But while there’s enough heat between him and Carter to melt the polar ice caps, is what they’re sharing just Sexmas or can it be something more?
Continue reading

Categories: 3 Star Ratings, Book Review, LGBT, Morgan's Reviews, Published in 2015, Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Book Review: By My Side by Jennifer Wright

Reviewed by JustJen

28074954Title: By My Side
Author: Jennifer Wright
Heroes: Noah/Shae
Genre: MM Contemporary
Length: 69 Pages
Publisher: Pride Publishing
Release Date: January 12, 2016
Available at: Amazon and Barnes & Noble
Add it to your shelf: Goodreads

Blurb:  Noah has suppressed his urges for other men for years, but when a sexy bartender comes crashing into his life, all bets are off.

Due to his career as a lawyer and his father’s strict ways, Noah has always ignored the side of him that craves the touch of another man, not wanting to upset the calm waters of his life. But when he’s out one night celebrating his friend’s first win in a courtroom, Noah is taken aback by the raw lust that consumes him when he meets Shea. He wants to ignore what he feels for the man, but when Shea introduces a tantalizing side of sex that Noah has been dreaming of, he finds it impossible to keep Shea out of his life.

Shea’s been heartbroken before by a man who wouldn’t come out of the closet for him, and he doesn’t think he can go through that again. Can Noah let go of his fears of coming out to the world? Will the pleasures Shea gives him in the bedroom have Noah seeing what really matters in the long run?
Continue reading

Categories: 4 Star Ratings, Book Review, JustJen's Reviews, LGBT, Published in 2016 | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Book Review: Kenai by Caitlin Ricci and A.J. Marcus

Reviewed by Morgan 

28093803Title: Kenai
Authors: Caitlin Ricci and A.J. Marcus
Series: Watchers #1
Heroes: Kenai/Derek
Genre: MM Paranormal
Length: 46 Pages
Publisher: Extasy Books
Release Date: December 8, 2015
Available at:  Amazon and Barnes & Noble
Add it to your shelf: Goodreads

Blurb:  Watchers aren’t supposed to get attached to the shifters they protect, but this mountain lion is getting tired of playing by the rules.

Watchers never get attached. Kenai has heard that rule all his life. He started his training as a small child and his mentor became his world. Now, at nineteen, he’s handling the shifters in the Pacific Northwest on his own. He only interferes with them when he has to—otherwise his life is spent alone. As a mountain lion shifter he doesn’t mind the solitude, but in his visions he sees shifters going off and having adventures, and he desperately wants one for himself. When he meets a bear shifter walking through the woods near his cabin, he’s all in and ready for whatever the bear wants to do.

Derek finds the overly energetic mountain lion annoying. He won’t stop bouncing around, and eventually he has to put Kenai in his place, which sends Kenai darting off. He does want some company though, so he follows Kenai’s trail back to his cabin and invites him to the salmon pools for a feast. He thought everyone knew what went on at those pools, so he’s surprised when Kenai reveals he’s a virgin. That isn’t the only secret this mountain lion is hiding, though, and when Derek finds out Kenai is a Watcher and practically a god to the shifters despite his young age, it might be more than he’s able to handle.

blogger_bee_trans

Review: Kenai is a watcher – a pre-cognitive shifter who arbitrates shifter problems. He’s been made to believe that he can only be a watcher if he lives his life alone.

When he has a dream (the way he gets all his arbitration information) about a bear and screams and salmon – he ends up following a bear shifter up to a salmon pond one day and they end up a couple.

He’s not sure what the screams mean but he’s worried about having a boyfriend.

**

I kind of feel like that was a bit of review Haiku. But that’s what the story felt like for me, too.

Kenai’s lonely. Then he meets someone. They like each other. Various shifter things happen. The end.

I can’t recommend this – though I really liked the premise of a watcher, and I love the idea that our little Kenai finally has a friend- it just didn’t do much for me. It was too all over the place, and I didn’t really get a good feel for Kenai’s bear mate, so I don’t know how’d they do as a couple.

Overall Impression:  It was okay, but not good

*I received a copy of this book from the publisher in return for a fair and honest review.*

Categories: 2 Star Ratings, Book Review, LGBT, Published in 2015 | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Book Review: Careened by Bey Deckard

Reviewed by JustJen

28274586Title: Careened
Author: Bey Deckard
Series: Baal’s Heart #3.5
Heroes: Tom/Jon/Baltsaros
Genre: MMM Fantasy
Length: 42 Pages
Publisher: Bey Deckard
Release Date: December 22, 2015
Available at: Amazon
Add it to your shelf: Goodreads

Blurb:  A Baal’s Heart short, following the events in Fated: Blood and Redemption.

Plagued by terrible dreams, Jon begins to distance himself from Baltsaros and Tom. Perhaps a little holiday cheer is just the thing to help the three of them find common ground again.
Continue reading

Categories: 5 Star Ratings, Book Review, JustJen's Reviews, LGBT, Published in 2015 | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Book Review: Loving Blitz by Charlie Cochet

Guest Reviewed by  Gyn

26251259Title: Loving Blitz
Author: Charlie Cochet
Series: North Pole City Tales #4
Heroes: Cupid/Blitzen
Genre: MM Fantasy
Length: 94 Pages
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press
Release Date: December 16, 2015
Available at:  Amazon and Barnes & Noble
Add it to your shelf: Goodreads

Blurb:  From North Pole City to Winter Wonderland, preparations are underway after a royal announcement sweeps everyone into a frenzy of festivity. At the heart of the celebration are the city’s most beloved elf pilots, the Rein Dears. Once the Big Flight is behind them, the pilots prepare for the royal event. Assigned a special task of finding an Elska rose, Cupid and Blitzen are unaware of how their friendship is about to change forever.

Yet not all that glitters is gold. The sweet, angelic Cupid hides a dark secret, one that threatens to destroy his Rein Dear status, his friends, and the elf who’s captured his heart. It’s up to Blitzen to help Cupid see the light in the darkness and show him that together they can mend broken hearts.
Continue reading

Categories: 4.5 Star Ratings, Book Review, Guest Reviewer, LGBT, Published in 2015 | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment