Hi there! Today I’m sharing in the blog tour for Louise Lyons‘ IN DARKEST PERU, a contemporary M/M romance novella where one jilted young man must get lost in the wilds of the Peruvian jungle in order to find himself.

About the book:
Shy and geeky Rhys White, has recently been ditched by his boyfriend of five years. On top of that he’s been made redundant from his job as a computer programmer.

Tired of being boring and unadventurous, he throws caution to the winds and buys a plane ticket to Peru.
Rhys’ adventure in Peru starts out well, but then disaster strikes. All of his belongings are stolen. Everything is gone—passport, wallet, phone, clothing, the lot.

Stranded in Cuzco, not too far from the famous Machu Picchu, Rhys tries to find someone to help him. He’s about to give up, when a sexy Brazilian named Rafael, comes to his rescue…

My Review:
Rhys is a newly-single computer programmer who has just been let go by his employer. Rhys has always felt that his ex, Jonathan, was a good guy who loved him, but it turns out Jon was a cheater and a user, and Rhys is a bit shattered over it. His self-confidence is pretty low. He’s super down on his luck, but decides to make lemonade of all his lemons by booking a trip to Peru to explore a bit while waiting for a new job to surface.

Arriving in Peru is exciting. Rhys is finally starting to gain some confidence in his ability to navigate around when his bus to Cuzco is held up and the bandits take his bag containing all his cash and his passport. He’s several days travel from the British Consulate and has nothing to his name. Rhys is In Deepest Despair…

A young man, Rafael, hears of Rhys’ plight and offers to be his guide throughout Cuzco, and to take him to Lima–all in exchange for deferred payment. Rafael is in Peru to make money as a guide, but he isn’t certified–he needs some good recommendations before that can happen.

Thing is, Rafael is GORGEOUS. So lean and well-built, friendly and kind. Rhys is In Deepest Lust. Good thing it’s an attraction returned…

Rhys hadn’t missed the searching looks Rafael had been giving him ever since, whenever they weren’t hiking in single file. He remembered how Rafael had grabbed his hand to assist him on steep parts of the track, and how afterward he had held on a little longer than necessary, as if he enjoyed the contact and wanted an excuse for it to continue. Could this gorgeous, sexy, Latin man actually like Rhys?
“You like girls… or boys?” Rafael whispered.
“Boys,” Rhys answered breathlessly. Oh God, he does like me.
“You have a boyfriend?”
“No. I did have a boyfriend. He broke up with me a few weeks ago.”

The novella is well-paced and has delightful British humor, which always charms me. I was so happy for Rhys’ fortune to change and for him to find the love for himself that he’d lacked. (I did enjoy the steamy bits, too!) Rafael is a good soul, and the kind of guide I’d hope would rescue me if I was stranded In Darkest Peru…. 😉

Interested? You can find IN DARKEST PERU on Goodreads, Amazon (US, UK and AU), Wayward Ink Publishing, AllRomance, and Barnes & Noble.

****GIVEAWAY****

Click the Rafflecopter link below for your chance to win
$20 Wayward Ink Publishing Gift Card
$5 Amazon Gift Card
1 x eBook copy of In Darkest Peru
1 x eBook copy of Conflicted or Second Bite of the Cherry (winner’s choice)
a Rafflecopter giveaway

Good luck and keep reading my friends!

About the author
Louise Lyons comes from a family of writers. Her mother has a number of poems published in poetry anthologies, her aunt wrote poems for the Church, and her grandmother sparked her inspiration with tales of fantasy. Louise first ventured into writing short stories at the grand old age of eight, mostly about little girls and ponies. She branched into romance in her teens, and MM romance a few years later, but none of her work saw the light of day until she discovered Fan Fiction in her late twenties.

Posting stories based on some of her favorite movies, provoked a surprisingly positive response from readers. This gave Louise the confidence to submit some of her work to publishers, and made her take her writing “hobby” more seriously.

Louise lives in the UK, about an hour north of London, with a mad Doberman, and a collection of tropical fish and tarantulas. She works in the insurance industry by day, and spends every spare minute writing. She is a keen horse-rider, and loves to run long distance. Some of her best writing inspiration comes to her, when her feet are pounding the open road. She often races into the house afterward, and grabs pen and paper to make notes.

Louise has always been a bit of a tomboy, and one of her other great loves is cars and motorcycles. Her car and bike are her pride and joy, and she loves to exhibit the car at shows, and take off for long days out on the bike, with no one for company but herself.

Catch up with Louise online on her website, Twitter and Facebook.