adult contemporary

Much to Gain by TURNING BACK–A TBR Review

Hi there! Today I’m sharing a review for a recently released MFM menage romance from best-selling author J.A. Huss. TURNING BACK is the second book in the Turning series and features Quin, Bric and Rochelle from TAKING TURNS on an adventure into true love.

About the book:
I lived in the dark for three years. My whole world revolved around the whims and happiness of three men. It was just a trip into the forbidden. A way out of a bad situation and forward into nothingness.

Quin, with his easy smile and charming good looks. He was always there for me… Until he wasn’t.

Smith, and his dispassionate attention. He was never there for me and he never regretted it.

Bric, the one who listened, but only to himself. Self-absorbed, self-obsessed, and self-serving. He was never the one I wanted.

And now he might be the only one I have left.

It was good while it lasted, I guess. But it could’ve been so much more. It could’ve been so much better.

And that’s why I’m turning back.

My Review:
There are some spoilers for the first book, TAKING TURNS, in this review because they are linked stories.

Quin, Bric, Smith are long-time friends who enjoy multiple partner sex, and run an exclusive gentleman’s club in Denver where the wealthy choose to share their wives and mistresses with each other. These guys and Rochelle were involved in a kinky four-way sex game for three years, until Rochelle left another woman in her stead. While these three may have been “with” Rochelle, they all certainly availed themselves of the club’s bounty as well. Rochelle was the tenth girl in this position in more than a decade, and she lied a life of luxury and decadence, but it wasn’t enough in the long run. Rochelle’s replacement, Chella, captivated Smith who fell hard for her and decided to leave their long-running game for an exclusive relationship. Quin was devastated by Rochelle’s disappearance. He had begun to acknowledge his deeper feelings for her. All of this was revealed in TAKING TURNS, the first book in the series.

And, Rochelle got tired of the game. She loved Quin alone, and she expected he wouldn’t drop out of the game to be with her…and she had bigger reasons for wanting an exclusive relationship: a pregnancy. When Quin learns that Bric’s advice to Rochelle regarding the pregnancy was callous, he’s even further upset. Despite their agreement to never try to reconnect with one of their past lovers, Quin wants Bric to find Rochelle and make things right. Bric…is not interested. He’d rather just find a new girl to share with Quin, but Quin’s despondency drives him away from Bric, the club, and the menage lifestyle.

Chella can’t bear to see Quin suffer any longer, and enlists a freelance bounty hunting friend to find Rochelle, and Bric’s the contact. He’s determined to tell Rochelle to stay away, but when he meets her, and her daughter of unknown paternity–she’s only 6 months old and looks much like Rochelle–he sees a new opportunity. Bric’s not been happy with his sex life since Quin stopped playing the game. Rochelle wants Quin, and Bric wants both of them–so he convinces Rochelle to return and make amends so the three of them can pick up a new game, or make a menage of their own. This appeal s to Rochelle, who’s been lonely, and who wants Quin any way she can have him…now. Because this year of self-imposed exile has convinced her that a life sharing the one you love seems better than a life without the one you love.

Quin isn’t ecstatic when Rochelle returns, however. He’s burning mad that she disappeared without telling him about the pregnancy, and how he missed all the changes of her body and birth of his daughter. They’ve agreed, for now, not to do a paternity test so both Quin and Bric can assume fatherhood. Bric moves Rochelle into his own personal penthouse apartment and fawns all over the baby, and Rochelle. Quin’s not fooled, recognizing that Bric’s playing a deeper game than before, but he also wants Rochelle more than ever. And, as the days go by, he’s experiencing his own need for more than a menage–for an exclusive relationship with his lover and their daughter. But, will Rochelle fall for Bric in the meantime?

This was an interesting story with lots of twists, turns, and sex. There’s no denying the sexual tension, but there’s a lot of intrigue, too, with master puppeteer Bric orchestrating his desired outcome: a longstanding menage with Quin and Rochelle, while also maintaining his ‘bachelor-ish’ status. Rochelle can’t trust him, and Quin sees through him, but Rochelle believes she needs Bric to bring Quin closer, and Quin believes he needs Bric to hold Rochelle’s attention. I liked the emotional swings in the book. I liked how these people aren’t near as callous or carefree as they appear on the surface. I like how they think often about each other, when it seems like they are thinking only of themselves. I liked how Rochelle gave Smith what-for, and how he had to make amends in the end. Because he was a big jerk to her, a lot, for no good reason. And, I liked that the ending is happy, for Quin and Rochelle. Bric, well, he has another book to get his life in order. We got a lot more insight on all the players in this game, and Bric, though he seems monstrously self-centered, is clearly not the bad guy we’ve come to expect. Looking forward to wrapping up this series soon!

Interested? You can find TURNING BACK on Goodreads, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, iTunes and Kobo.

About the Author:
JA Huss is the USA Today bestselling author of more than twenty romances. She likes stories about family, loyalty, and extraordinary characters who struggle with basic human emotions while dealing with bigger than life problems. JA loves writing heroes who make you swoon, heroines who make you jealous, and the perfect Happily Ever After ending.

Catch up with Ms. Huss on Facebook, twitter, her blog and Amazon.

Thanks for popping in and keep reading my friends!

Rescuing One’s Self: HOW TO SAVE A LIFE–Review, Exclusive Excerpt, and Giveaway!

Hi there! Today I’m so excited to share a review and exclusive excerpt for the newest book in the Mad Creek universe from Eli Easton. HOW TO SAVE A LIFE is the fourth M/M canine shifter romance in this series and I absolutely adore them all. Check out my reviews for HOW TO HOWL AT THE MOON, HOW TO WALK LIKE A MAN and HOW TO WISH UPON A STAR because these are books to not miss…

Also, don’t miss the exclusive excerpt or the backlist book giveaway below!
About the book: Rav Miller looked into the terrified, intelligent eyes of the chocolate Labrador on death row, and knew he’d do anything to save him. When the dog, Sammy, escapes and heads to Mad Creek, Rav follows. Mad Creek. The town had become legendary in Rav’s mind after he’d met that bizarre group last year. Rav dismissed his crazy suspicions back then, but when he arrives in Mad Creek, he knows it’s true. Dog shifters exist, and apparently they all live in the California mountains. It’s enough to blow a bad boy’s mind.

Sammy has something in common with Rav—neither one of them trusts people. After Sammy’s abuse as a dog, he particularly dislikes tough-looking men like Rav. But when Sammy gets a chance to work with rescued dogs at the new Mad Creek shelter, his deep compulsion to help others overcomes his fear. Rav and Sammy bond over saving strays. If they can each find the courage to let someone else in, they might find their way to love.

Sheriff Lance Beaufort doesn’t like humans moving into Mad Creek, especially not the tattooed and defiant Rav. When Rav starts a rescue shelter, the town thinks he’s wonderful! But Lance isn’t fooled. He doesn’t buy Rav’s innocent act for one second. How much does Rav know about the quickened? What is his game? And why did he have to show up now, when Lance and the other town leaders are overwhelmed by all the new quickened pouring in?

Rav knows how to save a life. But can he save an entire town? Can he rescue Mad Creek?

An awesome, exclusive excerpt!

Sammy looked back at Rav and waved. “Come on! Come swim!”

“Not yet. You go ahead.”

Sammy tossed his head, like Rav was being silly, and went deeper. He started paddling around. Dog paddling, his hands working the water in front of his chest, a huge grin on his face. Fuck it, that was cute. Rav smiled to himself as he unloaded the bike’s saddlebags. He’d brought an old blanket, a couple of collapsible chairs, a case of beer, a bag of chips, salsa, and guacamole he’d made himself. Damn, he hardly knew himself, acting all neighborly and shit, like he was actually a part of this community. But he’d lived in Arizona long enough to treasure his damn guacamole.

He set up the blanket and chairs and took the food and beer over to the food table. Lily and Tim were there, setting out plates and utensils.

“Hey,” Rav said.

“Hello, Rav.” Lily’s gaze was assessing, like he was a bug and she was trying to figure out the species. “How’s the shelter doing? I hear about it endlessly from everyone in town.”

“Not surprised. I think everyone in town has volunteered at least once.”

“Oh? How’s that working out for you? Are they helping?”

“They’re very enthusiastic.” Rav kept his voice carefully neutral.

“Is it hot today, or what?” Tim gushed. “Looks like Sammy has the right idea, getting in the lake.”

“He knows what he wants all right,” Rav agreed.

Lily looked at Sammy in the water, dog paddling around, then at Rav. Her head tilted curiously, and her eyes were narrowed and searching.

Sweat broke out on the back of Rav’s neck. It was like that scene in Children of the Damned when the alien kids were trying to read the guy’s mind and he pictured a brick wall to block them.

“Cold beer?” he asked abruptly, holding up the heavy case with one hand. “Is there ice somewhere?”

“There’re a bunch of coolers.” Tim nodded over his shoulder at a whole row of variously hued insulated boxes. “Feel free to use them if you can find space.”

“Got it.” Rav went to it, happy to leave Lily’s company.

He’d met her a few times. She was supportive of the shelter and the idea of rescuing dogs, but Rav got the feeling she could read him like a book. And Rav wasn’t all that keen to be read, thank you.

After stuffing half the case of beer in the coolers, he sat in a chair on the blanket and drank from a freshly opened bottle. He wasn’t being very social, but with all the volunteers he had at the shelter, it was nice to have time alone, to just be still for ten damn minutes and watch Sammy swim. Daisy pulled Sammy toward shore until they were both waist-deep. She wore a pink bikini, and Rav couldn’t help but notice that she had a great figure. Strong and lean. Damn, she looked so human.

Dog shifters were fucking amazing.

She rotated her arms in the air, demonstrating a long forward stroke. Sammy copied her, his wet arms flashing in the sun. She was chatting away with him, though Rav couldn’t hear what she was saying. After a bit, they moved deeper into the water, and Sammy tried to repeat the overhead stroke. But his elbows kept wanting to fold up and his hands to paddle at chest-level. The two of them were soon giggling like mad. Fuck. Where was Rav’s phone? He should seriously be videoing this because it was the cutest… in the world, the thing with the….

He’d just raised the phone and started filming when someone plopped down in the other chair on the blanket. In Sammy’s chair. Rav inwardly groaned when he saw it was Sheriff Lance Beaufort. He stopped filming guiltily and dropped the phone onto the blanket.

“What?” he asked bluntly. This is my fucking holiday, man. Leave off busting my balls.

For a moment, Lance was silent, like a bomb waiting to go off. Then: “I hear Sammy moved in with you, Mr. Miller.”

Rav felt a flicker of shame, though he had nothing on God’s earth to be ashamed about. He forced his body to relax.

“Yeah, well, Lance, Sammy said the town needed that teeny tiny tool shed he was living in. Apparently, you guys don’t have enough beds for people? Or something like that. And since he was mostly staying overnight at the shelter anyway, he gave his space up to someone else. So yes, he’s commandeered my couch. You’re welcome. Happy to contribute.”

Lance went tense all over and got a constipated expression. Rav pictured his head as a cartoon volcano with smoke rolling out. He had to bite back a laugh. Yes, dear old daddy was right. The best defense was offense, preferably with a nice smooth knife twist at the end. Rav had a feeling Lance would be sensitive about any perceived criticism of Mad Creek.

“The town doesn’t need your contribution,” Lance said in a voice of pure wounded pride.

Rav shrugged again, poking the bull. “That’s not the impression I got. But no worries, bruh.”

Lance took a few deep breaths and went back on the attack. “So he’s sleeping on the couch, out of the kindness of your heart? That’s your story? I hope you’re not taking advantage of that kid. Sammy’s always given me the impression that he’s… innocent. I think he was, uh, sheltered growing up.”

Rav kept his benign expression, but the barb hit home. “Yes, he’s on the couch. Ask him yourself. Or maybe not, since he’s not a minor, and it’s really none of your business.”

Lance huffed.

Rav settled back in his chair, tilting his face up to the sky. He wasn’t keeping score, but he thought he was ahead.

“So. Have you, um, noticed anything… unusual about Sammy? Now that he’s living with you?” Lance fished.

“Like what?”

“Like…” Lance growled, impatient. “He’s… different. From other guys.”

“The world would be boring as fuck if we were all alike.”

“No, I mean really. Really, very different.”

Out of Rav’s peripheral vision, he could see Lance’s intense blue eyes staring at him.

“He’s different,” Rav agreed slowly. “Most guys are assholes. I can say that with some authority because I am one.”

“Truer words.”

“Sammy, on the other hand, is not an asshole.”

“No. He’s not,” Lance agreed. “He’s also not particularly well-educated. He’s, um, taking classes with my mom. Basic stuff. Very, very basic.”

Rav casually slapped at a fly on his arm. “We all have our challenges. I don’t hold that against him.”

Lance growled low in his chest, evidently getting frustrated. “You haven’t noticed anything else odd about him?”

As amusing as this was on some level, Rav was starting to lose patience. “What are you getting at? Are you implying that Sammy is simple-minded? Because he’s not. He’s fully capable of making his own decisions.”

“I never said that. Lily says Sammy is very bright, one of her brightest qui—er, students. But he still can barely read and write. Did you hire him because he’s attractive? Because you wanted to get him into your bed?”

Rav had a serious urge to punch the guy. But his upbringing taught him that power came from feeling no emotion, or at least acting like he didn’t. The calmest man in the room won over the ranting lunatic. He forced himself to release the tension. He even yawned to show how much he wasn’t bothered.

“I hired him because he’s great with the dogs. Period.”

Lance’s eyes narrowed suspiciously. “Why do you think that is, Mr. Miller?”

Man. This guy was like a bloodhound on a scent. But if he thought he could get Rav Miller to crack, he was barking up the wrong tree. “How do you explain any talent? Maybe he’s got a sensitive soul.”

Lance was quiet for a long moment.

“I know you’re not a stupid man,” Lance said finally, in a low and serious tone. “And definitely not as stupid as you want me to think you are.”

“I don’t care what you think.”

“Tell me you don’t know there’s something different about this town. About these people. What are you hiding?”

Rav looked Lance in the eye. “Do you want to know what I think about Mad Creek? I think you’ve got a hell of an unemployment problem, and I can’t see that you’re doing jack all about it. Did you see how many people showed up to apply for that job I opened? And every day I get ten, twenty people coming around wanting to do something, anything. So maybe instead of spending your time worrying about law-abiding business owners who are trying to do some good in the world, you should focus on helping your own community. Just a suggestion. Lance.”

Lance flushed firecracker red. Even his ears lit up and his eyes snapped. Oh yeah, there went the volcano. Ka-blam. So that was Lance’s sore spot. Good to know.

“This community and its needs are not your problem, Mr. Miller.” Lance’s voice shook.

“Well then, how about we make a deal? You stay out of my business, and I’ll stay out of yours?” Rav stared Lance down. Yeah, that’s a threat, buddy. How do you like it?

Lance got up and walked away.

Rav needed to cool down, in more ways than one, so after Lance left, he stripped off his tank and waded into the lake.

Daisy and Sammy were swimming back and forth between the shore and a wooden dock that was out several hundred yards in the water. The next time they got close, Rav joined the race. He wasn’t the most graceful swimmer in the world, or the fastest, but he had a lot of anger to burn off and he attacked the water like a demented mermaid. Even so, he reached the dock seconds after Sammy. Sammy bobbed in the water, his face split wide with a smile.

“You can swim!” he exclaimed, as if Rav had been holding out on him.

“‘Course I can swim. What do you think? I know everything.”

Daisy laughed. “Don’t believe him, Sammy. All men think that.”

“Oh I know he doesn’t know everything,” Sammy said coyly.

Sammy and Daisy exchanged a knowing glance. Rav decided to change the subject.

“I see you’re getting the hang of it.” Rav mimicked the overhead stroke.

“Yes, it’s much faster.” Sammy held out one long arm and turned it back and forth, looking at it critically.

“Rav, you can play with Sammy for a while. I’m gonna go eat now!” Daisy chirped.

“Don’t eat all the burgers. Save some for us,” Rav said sternly.

“He’s joking,” Sammy told her. “He’s so funny!” Humor was Sammy’s new thing, and he couldn’t get enough of old TCM comedies right now. Daisy just laughed and headed back to shore.

“Don’t mow all the grass!” Sammy called out after her. “And don’t spill all the Coke! Ha-ha!”

“You’re a goof,” Rav told him.

“What’s that mean?”

“That means you’re silly. It’s a compliment.”

Rav leveraged himself out of the water onto the wooden dock, his triceps bulging, and was slightly annoyed when Sammy swung up beside him so easily he might have weighed nothing at all. Rav wiped the water off his face and beard and smoothed back his hair. As usual, concepts of personal boundaries held no sway with Sammy, and he didn’t leave enough room between them for a whisper. His slick arm and side rubbed against Rav’s.

“You like the water, I see.” Rav said.

“Yes. I forgot how much! I used to swim when I was… young.”

“Yeah?”

“Yes. Swimming is very—” Sammy thought about it. “Refreshing.”

Rav smiled at Sammy fondly. The shimmering water and sun, and his slicked back hair, brought the lines of his face into sharp focus. God, he was changing so rapidly. It was a little, Rav imagined, like having a child. Parents were always saying things like “He’s growing so fast!” Only in Sammy’s case, it wasn’t his body, but his mind and behavior that were changing, and it at lightning speed. He liked using bigger words, picking them up from Rav or the TV or God-knows-where, all as though his brain were a dictionary database. He was getting more talkative, joking and laughing more. He was moving with more swagger too, acting like a tough guy, possibly, Rav realized, imitating Rav himself. It was almost sad to see the shy, awkward Sammy ebb away. Or it would have been, if the new, more confident Sammy were not so damned appealing. Rav loved seeing Sammy happy.

“Why do you look at me like that?” Sammy asked, his golden eyes staring back into Rav’s.

Rav blinked and looked away. “Sorry. Guess I was thinking about something else.”

“What? You must like it a whole lot. Your eyes were all melty.”

“Hmmm. Were they?”

Sammy didn’t push for an answer. He put his head on Rav’s shoulder. His wet hair was damp and cold where the sun had already warmed Rav’s skin.

My Review:
Rav Miller is a big, brawny biker with a heart of absolute gold, when it applies to dogs. People, not so much. He grew up in a family that thrived on making tons of cash in real estate and business, but he didn’t like the cut-throat, often not even legal, tactics they took to make more and more money. So, he stepped away and began rescuing dogs.

Over the years, he decided that opening a no-kill shelter was the best manner to his goal: more dog rescues. He even went to shelters in his area and rescued dogs tagged for destruction. A year ago, he met some strange men from Mad Creek, California; these guys helped him return all his animals from sheltering int he desert after vandals had turned the whole facility loose. Rav never forgot the experience, and he was struck by the intelligence in the eyes of some random dogs they’d brought along, including Milo. And, he sees that same spark of intelligence in Sammy, a shy chocolate lab.

Sammy’s first life was as a chocolate lab, and it began with a great start. He loved his owner, and she loved him, but she fell down the stairs one day and he was too scared to bark for help. Her sister took Sammy in when his first owner died. But, this woman’s husband was abusive and particularly hated Sammy. He hated when Sammy interfered while he was beating his wife, and he beat Sammy, too. He threatened to leave Sammy out in the snow during the winter, so she took him to a shelter. There he meets a dog who can turn into a man, one who insists Sammy will be able to do so if only he tries hard enough. Sammy isn’t sure if he can, but he also recognizes that he needs to get away from this shelter before his kill date comes up. He takes careful note of his dog-man-friend’s instruction on how to make it to Mad Creek and be safe. All Sammy needs to do is get adopted, however, he is terrified of large men and few families are willing to adopt him. His kill date draws lethally close. Until Rav comes along.

Rav tries to win Sammy’s trust, but it’s hard to do. Within a week, Sammy the dog goes missing. Rav’s speechless when he watches surveillance footage showing Sammy open his cage, and several doors, in order to release himself from captivity. Upon activating Sammy’s tracker, he follows his meandering labrador to Mad Creek, several hundred miles away. Two connections to Mad Creek in one year is too much coincidence, and Rav decides a road trip is necessary. Arriving, he cannot believe what he finds: lots and lots of doggy-acting humans. Is it magic, or science? If there’s any people Rav could love, it would be these remarkable dog-people.

Sheriff Lance Beaufort isn’t happy that Rav’s deciding to stay, but the whole town is overjoyed when Rav announces he’s planning to open a dog rescue in Mad Creek, and he’s willing to hire members from the community as staff: firstly, Sammy. He immediately notices how many unemployed people live in Mad Creek, and how thin the financial resources are stretched. Yet, working with Sammy shows Rav how easy it is to train the “quickened” dogs (who appear as people because they are dog shifters) in new, but repetitive, tasks. It’s first nature to them to do the same thing over and over, and it gets Rav’s brain working on potential industries he might be able to bring to Mad Creek, to provide jobs for the thousands of quickened who’d never adapt sufficiently to standard jobs in an unsheltered life.

While Sammy is falling head over tails for Rav, Rav’s doing the same with Sammy. Their relationship grows slowly, because Sammy is newly quickened and his physical body is more mature than his emotional or mental age. Plus, Sammy is still shy of large men, even in his human body. Still, being close with Rav is exciting and Sammy’s pals, like Milo, help him figure out how to become a physical lover. Rav’s patience and quiet love for the man-dog he’d rescued back in Arizona pays off, and Rav’s experience in business brings new life to Mad Creek. I don’t really want to discuss those details, because the intricate plotting is very sweet. The book is a bit of a slow burn, and has some dark moments, too. Like, Sammy’s experiences of abuse, and the way the Mad Creek folks try to run Rav out of town. Expect true love to win the day, Sheriff Lance to get a new partner in caring for Mad Creek, and the quickened to find new hope and industry. It’s tender adn sweet and gooey and I loved every second of it. While there’s no guarantee we’ll see another book in this series, I’m wishing on stars and howling at the moon for one.

Interested? You can find HOW TO SAVE A LIFE on Goodreads, Amazon (US or UK).

****GIVEAWAY****

Click on this Rafflecopter giveaway link for your chance to win a backlist book from Eli Easton.
Good luck and keep reading my friends!

And, don’t forget to  check out the previous books in this dog-gone fun series….

HOW TO HOWL AT THE MOON, HOW TO WALK LIKE A MAN, and HOW TO WISH UPON A STAR.

Eli EastonAbout the Author:
Eli Easton has been at various times and under different names a minister’s daughter, a computer programmer, a game designer, the author of paranormal mysteries, a fan fiction writer, an organic farmer, and a long-distance walker. She began writing m/m romance in 2013 and has published 27 books since then. She hopes to write many more.

As an avid reader of such, she is tickled pink when an author manages to combine literary merit, vast stores of humor, melting hotness, and eye-dabbing sweetness into one story. She promises to strive to achieve most of that most of the time. She currently lives on a farm in Pennsylvania with her husband, two bulldogs, several cows, and a cat. All of them (except for the husband) are female, hence explaining the naked men that have taken up residence in her latest fiction writing.

Eli currently publishes with Dreamspinner Press and has a few self-pubbed titles as well. She also publishes thrillers under the pen name: Jane Jensen.

Catch up with Eli on her website, Facebook, and twitter.
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Starting Over With ALL WHEEL DRIVE–A Review

Hi there! Today I’m sharing a review for a recently published M/M romance from Z. A. Maxwell. ALL WHEEL DRIVE is the 18th book in the long-running Bluewater Bay series, but is fine to be read as a standalone. Readers who’ve enjoyed HELL ON WHEELS will likely enjoy it most, as it features some side characters in this new love story.

About the book:
Healey Holly is battered, depressed, and looking to go to ground in his childhood home. He wants to rent the garage apartment, but it’s Diego Luz’s place now, and the last thing Diego wants is to share it.

Diego is recovering too—from the accident that put him in a wheelchair and the death of his mother shortly after. The garage apartment is where he’s keeping his mother’s things, and as long as they’re up those stairs and he’s down on the ground, there’s no way he can deal with his loss. And that’s just how he likes it.

Healey believes in science. Diego believes in luck. It will take a blend of both, and some prayer thrown in besides, for these two to learn that it’s the journey and the destination that matters.

My Review:
Healey Holly is a man adrift. His long-time, bipolar, boyfriend, Ford, just spun off the rails of sanity and nearly took them both to a very young grave. They’d been growing apart, and were on a last goodbye weekend when things went really, really, bad. Busted up and needing some connection to his roots, Healey limps into Bluewater Bay and offers a load of cash to the disabled man, Diego Luz who’s recently purchased Healey’s family home, so that he can crash in the apartment above the garage. It’s a dump, filled with storage boxes of Diego’s late-mother’s art and Diego doesn’t want to have anyone up there, but he recognizes the desperation rolling off Healey and reluctantly agrees.

Diego is wallowing, and has been for some time. He’d suffered an accident that left him paralyzed from the waist down a few years back, and he’s bitter over the way his life has changed. Once a sought-after photojournalist and bed partner, Diego is a virtual recluse, now, doing some low level editing work for the Wolf’s Landing TV show that is filmed in Bluewater Bay. His step-father has been after him for a year to make the documentary about his late mother’s art, and her influence on Chicana politics, but Diego can’t find the will to even look at her work. He’s so despondent, and he’s not sure what to make of the interested stares he witnesses from Healey.

So, this book is long on healing. Physical, emotional, sexual. Healey is a brilliant man, and doesn’t trust his instincts since life with Ford went so awry. How could he be so complacent, and was he responsible for Ford going manic? Diego’s much more pragmatic, but still vulnerable. He wants a stable partner, but doesn’t think anyone would want him for anything but a fetish, if that. As he and Healey begin to confide in one another, they see each other in a different light, one where Healey can forgive himself and Diego can endure the pain of his mother’s loss. There are some sexy moments, but they aren’t porn-worthy. Unless some of it’s a bloopers reel. And that’s okay, because all of this felt really genuine. Life is freaking messy, and Diego is quick to judge himself for making messes, while Healey basks in the strength and resilience Diego casually demonstrates. I liked how they saw the good in one another, and brought that to the surface.

When each man needs to hunt down his demons–Healey needs to speak with Ford face-to-face to resolve the legal issues that have developed from their accident, and Diego has to visit his stepfather and the extended family–they are a solid support for each other. A bulwark against the potentially crushing emotional toll these experiences are sure to bring. They work as partners, for many reasons, but not least of which is sheer stubbornness, and the ability to see past the present limitations and into future possibilities.

Interested? You can find ALL WHEEL DRIVE on Goodreads, Riptide Books, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, iTunes and Kobo. I received a review copy via NetGalley.

About the Author:
Z.A. Maxfield started writing in 2007 on a dare from her children and never looked back. Pathologically disorganized, and perennially optimistic, she writes as much as she can, reads as much as she dares, and enjoys her time with family and friends. If anyone asks her how a wife and mother of four manages to find time for a writing career, she’ll answer, “It’s amazing what you can accomplish if you give up housework.”

Her published books include Crossing Borders, Drawn Together, and the St. Nacho’s and Brothers Grime series from Loose Id, ePistols at Dawn and The Pharaoh’s Concubine from Samhain Publishing, and Notturno, Vigil, Stirring Up Trouble, and All Stirred Up from MLR Press.

Catch up with Ms. Maxfield online on her website, twitter, Facebook and Goodreads.

Hard to Trust LEANING INTO ALWAYS–Review and Giveaway!

Hi there! I’m so excited to share a review and giveaway for a new M/M romance out today from Lane Hayes. LEANING INTO ALWAYS is book 1.5 in her Leaning In series, and follows the love story of Eric and Zane, two seemingly mismatched lovers from the same place but definitely not the same life. I really liked LEANING INTO THE FALL, so I was eager to get back to these Bay-area romances.

Scroll down for an excerpt and to enter to win a $10 GC.
About the book:
Life is good for Eric Schuster. He owns a highly successful tech company, has a great group of buddies, and he’s about to marry the man of his dreams. Eric is pleasantly surprised to find the transition from friends to lovers has been easier than he thought. However, after running into an overly friendly ex-boyfriend on an impromptu trip to their shared hometown, Eric realizes things are about to get complicated.

Zane Richards is a quintessential California surfer dude turned professional sailor. His laid-back approach has helped him navigate difficult times in his life. Eric may not share his easy-going mindset but Zane knows without a doubt Eric is the one. However, carving a future together may require confronting a piece of the past Zane thought he’d left far behind. Both men will have to decide if they’re willing to risk what they know for a chance to lean into always.

How about a little taste?

“Hmm. I want to drop this, but…I have one last question. What did you mean about ‘being from here?’ I know San Francisco is home now but this is a nice place too. I always thought it would be kind of cool to move back someday so I could—”

“No. No way. Never,” I replied emphatically.

I tried and failed again to make a getaway. Zane pounced on me and held me down, snaking his arm across my chest to keep me next to him.

“O-kay…where’s this coming from?”

“I can’t explain it. You wouldn’t understand.”

“Try me.”

“It sounds stupid.” I met his patient gaze, hoping he’d cut me some slack, but he didn’t budge and I had a feeling he wouldn’t until I spit it out. “Fine. I was teased pretty mercilessly for being a geek from kindergarten through high school. I never fit in. I wasn’t blond, athletic, or particularly charming. I was smart. Smarter than I appear to be now,” I huffed.

“Who bullied you? I’m gonna kick some ass. No one messes with my man,” he said, nuzzling my neck.

I chuckled, running my fingers along his spine. “Thanks. I told you it sounded lame. I’m a perfectly well-adjusted adult when I’m not here. And I’m actually pretty good when I come for quick family visits, but this feels different. It feels like I’m being thrown back in time and forced to hang out with the cool kids. Today was a great example. I made a fool of myself out there and I made you mad. Yeah, I was jealous but that was only part of it. I also wanted to prove I’d grown up a little and that I wasn’t the same sunscreen-caked dork who’d sit under an umbrella and read when he went to the beach anymore. I guess I still am.”

“You seem to be forgetting one major detail, Er.”

I traced the laugh-lines at the corner of his eyes and pushed his hair from his forehead. “What is it?”

“I like you just the way you are. I don’t expect you to change and develop a sudden passion for things I enjoy doing. Just be you. And if that means you’d rather finish a chapter lounging in the sand than jump in the water, that’s okay by me.”

“Thank you.”

“Don’t thank me. It comes with the territory. I wouldn’t want to spend the rest of my life with you if I didn’t love all your weird habits,” he teased, pulling us both to sit up.

“Weird? Me? I bet you can’t name three weird things about me,” I declared as I sauntered toward the bathroom.

“I bet I can name ten. I’ll give you my list at breakfast. Jump in the shower while I call housekeeping and ask them to change our sheets.”

I stopped in the doorway and frowned. “Just tell them I spilled water on them or something.”

“Why lie? I’m going to tell them my boyfriend got jizz on my side of the bed and…”

I shook my head mournfully and turned on the shower to drown out his silly speech about being stuck with a messy lover and crusty sheets. I chuckled at his ‘put upon’ tone and called for him to join me before stepping under the spray. I stopped abruptly and backed up to look at my reflection. My cheeks were flushed, my eyes were bright, and my smile spanned my entire face. I was incredibly happy and if I said so myself, it looked good on me.

My Review:
Eric Schuster and Zane Richards are months away from their wedding, and all is great when they can live their idyllic life in San Fransisco. That’s where Eric feels at home, despite he and Zane both growing up in Orange County. They went to the same high school, but Eric was an awkward teen, teased and bullied from early youth for his apparent “gay”-ness. And, he was gay, and he was out, because he couldn’t avoid it. Zane was strong, popular and athletic, a poster boy for Cali surfers and secretly bisexual. While Eric grew up having all his material needs met, Zane’s single mom worked overtime to provide the basic necessities. They both ended up at the same college, and gravitated toward one another as friends for years before they started dating. Most days, Eric feels like he’s dreaming; engaged to marry his teen crush who is (to Eric inexplicably) his dear friend. And, he’s over the high school mentality, until he and Zane need to return to Orange County for Zane’s work and to catch their folks up on the wedding plans.

Zane is a professional sailor who sells yachts for a living. It’s a sweet gig, but Eric’s not the first mate-type. He’s barely getting his sea legs, in all truth. One of Zane’s biggest clients is Don Carrigan, a wealthy blowhard of an investor who’d put a lot of money into Eric’s company as a start-up, and who’s not so happy that Eric’s business partner, Nick, broke off the engagement to his daughter.

Still, he wants to keep Don happy, and Don’s in the market for a new yacht. That means a trip to Orange County on the hunt for just the right boat. It also reconnects Zane with the man he’d lost his virginity to years ago: Dean. Dean was a couple of years older than Zane and Eric in school, but Zane and Dean had a lot of time to experiment. They wouldn’t have ever considered coming out as bi, then, and Dean’s not wild about the prospect now, but he seems to keep popping up and being uber-helpful in Zane’s quest for the perfect yacht. And Eric’s not convinced that Dean’s interest is all water long past a bridge.

This book is told from Eric’s point of view, and it’s really a vulnerable look into long-held insecurities. He struggles with Zane’s relationship with Dean, which is purely professional, because of the high school awe he’d placed on Zane,and to some degree Dean. They were/are the beautiful people, and he’s, well, he’s less gawky now. And he looks good in a suit. But, what if Zane thinks Dean’s a better match, because they share so many physical interests? Eric can’t surf, he’s only learning to sail and they don’t have the same shared history that Dean and Zane do. His suspicions are magnified by Dean’s constant presence, even in their home up in San Fran. It’s getting to be way to much for Eric to stay silent about. And, well, he feels pressured to stake his claim on Zane, even when it stretches his physical limits.

This is an engaging and sexy read, and I loved getting to know Eric and Zane better. I didn’t read the first book in this series, and I think I would have liked to, just to see how these guys morphed their friendship into love.

Interested? You can find LEANING INTO ALWAYS on Goodreads and Amazon.

****GIVEAWAY****

Click on this Rafflecopter giveaway link for your chance to win a $10 Amazon GC.
Good luck and keep reading my friends!

About the Author:
Lane Hayes is grateful to finally be doing what she loves best. Writing full-time! It’s no secret Lane loves a good romance novel. An avid reader from an early age, she has always been drawn to well-told love story with beautifully written characters. These days she prefers the leading roles to both be men. Lane discovered the M/M genre a few years ago and was instantly hooked. Her debut novel was a 2013 Rainbow Award finalist and subsequent books have received Honorable Mentions, and were winners in the 2016 Rainbow Awards. She loves red wine, chocolate and travel (in no particular order). Lane lives in Southern California with her amazing husband in an almost empty nest.

Catch up with Lane on her website, Facebook, twitter, and Goodreads.

Working Hard HEALING HIM–Review and Giveaway!

Hi there! Today I’m sharing a review and giveaway for a new contemporary M/M/M menage romance from AT Brennan. HEALING HIM is the second in her The Den Boys series, and features a survivor of child sex abuse finding love and healthy intimacy with not one but two men of his dreams. It’s a standalone steamer!

Scroll down to meet two of this triad in a sweet excerpt and to enter the backlist book giveaway!
About the book:
“I hated that I was like this, but after years of trying to work through it I was beginning to feel like I’d never be normal.” ~ Cody
Hiding the fact that I was in love with my best friend Isaac used to be the most complicated part of my day, until a chance meeting with a handsome stranger named Jonah sent my life into a tailspin. Scars from my past have stopped me from giving in to my desires for so long, but I’m done being afraid. I want both men. I just don’t know if I’ll be able to trust that anyone can love me.

“I knew it was a bit messed up, but there was no jealousy or envy when I thought of my men together.” ~ Isaac
I’ve loved Cody for as long as I’ve known him, but have always held back because of his past. Then I met Jonah and I knew there was no way I could choose between them. I want it all—the man I’ve loved for so long, and the one I’m quickly falling for. It’s not going to be easy, but nothing worthwhile ever is.

“I wanted to believe it was all true, but I couldn’t push aside the fear that I was just a distraction until the two of them got together.” ~ Jonah
After having my heart broken I never thought I’d find love again. I wasn’t looking for anything real, and then I met not one, but two men I can’t resist. Isaac and Cody are everything I ever wanted but didn’t know I could have. I want to believe the three of us can work, but a part of me can’t get past the fear that I’ll be the odd man out, again.

*This is Book 2 of The Den Boys series, but can be read as a standalone – no cliffhangers.

How about a little taste?

“So, start with Insidious?” I asked Cody as we flopped on his small couch.

“You’re evil.”

“What? We’ve seen it so many times you should know when the freaky parts happen. I could have said I Spit On Your Grave.”

“That movie was messed up, not scary.” Cody shook his head and took the beer I held out to him. “I’m never watching that one again.”

“True, how about The Grudge?”

“Fine, but I swear to god, if you change my ringtone to that creepy moaning noise, I’ll never speak to you again.”

I grinned and opened my computer to cue up the movie. We might be able to joke about that incident now, but at the time it had been anything but funny.

The first time we’d watched it together we’d only been friends for about a month. I’d waited until Cody had fallen asleep then downloaded the moaning sound the demon character made as his ringtone. Then I’d snuck into the bathroom, blocked my number and called his phone. We’d been at my place that night, and he’d flipped out.

I’d felt terrible at how badly I’d scared him. I’d thought he’d get a good laugh out of it and that would be the end of things, but he’d been so freaked out he hadn’t been able to sleep for hours.

That was the night I’d learned a little bit about Cody’s past, and why he hadn’t handled the joke well. It wasn’t so much the ringtone that had scared him, it had been waking up in my bed alone, scared and disoriented.

It had taken a few more months for Cody to open up and tell me more about his past, and every time he told me something new my heart broke a little bit more for him. Even now I’d learn about something he hadn’t told me yet, and I’d wish I could take away his pain.

The more time I’d spent with Cody, the more I’d realized that he was an incredible person. He wasn’t just sweet and kind, he was caring and fiercely loyal. He was also beautiful.

At five-nine he wasn’t short, but with his slender build and cherubic face he seemed so much younger than twenty-one. His big blue eyes were wide and expressive. He wore his blond hair shaved close on the sides but long on top, so it was constantly falling over his forehead and brushing the tops of his cheeks if he didn’t continuously push it back. Everything about him was so beautiful it was almost painful, and it hadn’t taken me long to fall in love with him.

If he’d been any other guy I would have asked him out on a date, and gotten to know him as a romantic interest instead of as a friend.

My Review:
Cody is a 21 year old man who has just gotten his first apartment, and thrives in his job as a bartender at The Den. He’s a survivor of forced child prostitution and abuse, and fled the foster care system before getting help and counseling at Open Arms, an LGBT-centered shelter in his town. It’s where he met the owner of The Den, who hired him and set him up with living arrangements. Cody suffers nightmares of his abuse, and has an aversion to touch that he’s been working through slowly and carefully with his best friend, Isaac. And, Cody has a big crush on Isaac, though he’s sure he can’t be a real partner for him. He’s never even had a first kiss, let alone a voluntary sexual encounter, and the idea of being physical with anyone induces panic-attacks and guilt.

Isaac is gone over Cody, but he’s content with the close friendship they have developed if that’s all Cody can ever handle. He knows some of Cody’s history and has been instigating little touches and platonic contact at Cody’s request for the past year. That said, when Isaac meets the newest counselor at Open Arms, Jonah, who’s come to visit Cody at The Den, Isaac isn’t a little turned on. He’s a lot. And Jonah, well, he can’t get over how sexy Cody and Isaac are. He expects they are a couple, but he’s happy to go home with Isaac when Isaac admits to being single.

Cody is a little sad that Isaac and Jonah might hook up, but he’s confused regarding how aroused that prospect makes him. He’s hardly noticed attraction for himself, but the idea of Isaac and Jonah together pushed all his “on” buttons. When he and Isaac discuss it, Isaac’s floored that Cody has feelings for him, and he’s overjoyed when Cody wants to kiss him! Their discussions lead to more than kissing–Jonah’s attracted to both Cody and Issac, and is down for expanding their sexytimes, to allow Cody to watch, and participate as much as he can.

Yep, sexual healing is the nature of this book. I’ll be truthful, this one is all about the feels, and getting it on. There were some accessory intrigues, and some other characters do interact with our budding trio, but it’s really focused on how they can fashion a relationship that counts them as equal shares in the experience. You’re going to want to keep a squeegee handy so all the steam doesn’t cloud the screen. I liked how carefully Jonah and Isaac were with Cody, and how they let him join them at his pace. For me, considering how pervasive and horrific the abuse Cody suffered, I though he came around a little quicker than I’d expected. Jonah has some reservations, too, thinking he’s just a passing fancy for Cody and Isaac. He’s been broken-hearted by a couple guys and is sure they won’t want him around long-term either. It’s sweet when they convince him it’s not true.

This one ends with an HEA, times three, and I liked this story enough to want to read new books down the road, especially whenever Isaac’s twin Noah get his own book.

Interested? You can find HEALING HIM on Goodreads and Amazon: US and UK.

****GIVEAWAY****

Click on this Rafflecopter giveaway link for your chance to win a backlist book from AT Brennan.
Good luck and keep reading my friends!

About the Author:
A.T. Brennan, who also writes under the name Mandie Mills, is a romance and erotica author. A native of Ottawa, Canada, she enjoys picking up and moving from city to city every few years. A former member of the Canadian Armed Forces, current entrepreneur and freelance writer, she enjoys spending her days working on her many projects and her nights writing and not getting enough sleep. Currently she lives on Canada’s East Coast with her family, both two- and four-legged. She enjoys collecting books and exploring the different sides of romance and romantic expression in her works.

You can visit her at website, or on Facebook for AT Brennan and Author Mandie Mills.

Out Today! MR. BIG–Review and Excerpt

Hi there! Today I’m sharing a review and excerpt for a New Adult romance form Delancey Stewart. I rather liked her book MEN AND MARTINIS, so I thought I’d try another book. MR. BIG features two disconnected people finding peace, and problems, with one another. Not least of which because one is the CEO of the company the other works for….

About the book:
Once upon a time, I had everything: money, power, a multimillion-dollar company, a loving family. Well, at least I thought I had everything. Then my parents died, and I found out my whole life was based on a lie. That’s pretty much the moment when I went numb. Told the world to f*** off and went on a bender of epic proportion, just to see how far I could fall before I hit rock-bottom.

Now I’m back and all I want in this world is my morning—okay, afternoon—coffee. Then one of my employees has the nerve to call me out for cutting the line at the coffeehouse at the company I own. Sure, I’m a little scruffier than usual, but come on, bitching out the CEO? Not a smart career move. Just who does this smart-mouthed ball-buster think she is? And more important, what do I have to do to get her number?

Holland O’Dell may be uptight, but I wouldn’t mind taking her back to my place and ripping off that business-casual blouse/skirt combo and burying myself in her curves. She pushes my buttons, but at least I’m feeling something. And whatever it is, I won’t stop until I get more.

Advance praise for Mr. Big

“Mr. Big is the kind of smart, sexy delight that every woman deserves to read! [Delancey] Stewart will make you believe in true love in this steamy, heart-wrenching tale.”—USA Today bestselling author Sierra Simone

“With a smart, feisty heroine and hot, tortured hero, Mr. Big has everything I look for in a contemporary romance. Witty, sexy, and full of heart!”—Melanie Harlow, USA Today bestselling author

How about a little taste?

“Where did you come from, Holland?”

“That’s a good question.” I wasn’t trying to dodge, but I didn’t have an answer. Plus, I wasn’t sure he was speaking geographically.

“Were you born and raised in Los Angeles?”

So he was speaking geographically. “Maybe,” I said. “I was raised here. I don’t know where I was born, actually.”

He raised an eyebrow in question.

I took a deep breath. “I was abandoned. They found me in a cardboard box at a hospital in Long Beach when I was a couple weeks old.”

I watched his eyes, waiting for the predictable sorrow, the sympathy most people offered when they heard about my inauspicious beginnings. Hale’s eyes reflected something else, though—they flashed with anger.

“I grew up in foster homes.” I shrugged.

“You were adopted?” He whispered the words, as if he couldn’t believe what he was saying.

I shook my head, a little confused at his reaction. For a moment I wondered if the revelation made him think less of me. It had certainly made me think less of myself for a lot of years. “Nope. Never adopted. Just fostered.” My salad came and I was thankful for the distraction.

Hale watched me intently, a crease between his dark eyes. He seemed about to say something, but then turned his head and stared out at the ocean instead. The sun was flashing on its surface, glittering like cellophane ribbons. I waited for him to ask more questions, but he seemed lost in thought.

We ate in relative silence, me enjoying the sunlight and warmth, and the entire avocado I’d convinced the waitress to bring me. Hale appeared to be focused on something inside his mind, something he didn’t seem apt to share. I decided to push. “What about you?”

His eyes snapped back to mine and then he shook his head, saying nothing.

“Seriously? I share but you don’t?” After spending most of the morning being thoughtful and kind, Mr. Big Dick was back. His face was closed and anger bubbled in his eyes as he turned his focus to his burger. “I see how it is,” I pressed.

He paused, a fry partway to his mouth, and then his hand lowered again, his shoulder slumping. “It’s not that I don’t want to tell you.”

“Okay . . .”

He dropped the fry and leaned back in his chair, a deep sigh escaping his lips. “It’s more that I don’t really know.” He stared down at his plate as he said, “I was adopted, actually. But I’ve only found that out recently.” His voice was cold, almost clinical, like this was a distant fact to be examined, not something integral to who he was.

“And you’re upset?” It was a stupid question. A dark frown had crept over his face and he looked much more like the broody asshole I’d met at Cody Tech than like the almost sweet man who’d been helping me since then. He was clearly upset.

A smile flickered over those incredible lips, but it did nothing to tamp down the sadness in his eyes. “I don’t know. Yes. It’s complicated.”

Without stopping myself this time, I reached for his hand, my own fingers covering the long square tips of his where they rested on the table. He started slightly, as if I’d shocked him, and then relaxed, his thumb reaching around to rub a line across the top of my fingertips. I suppressed the shiver that ran through me. The pain in his eyes had ebbed, and he looked up at me with something that felt a bit like wonder.

My Review:
Holland O’Dell is an algorithms expert who’s hired in the only suitable position (for a woman) at her dream company Cody Tech: in sales. It’s disheartening, but Holland’s a fighter. She survived three foster homes after being abandoned shortly after birth and has cobbled together a small nucleus of friends that she considers family. She’s also got a great idea for restructuring one of Cody Tech’s earliest device designs, and an in with a contact at Major League Baseball. Id she can refine and sell the product, she might garner enough support to get hired into her dream position in project development.

Oliver “Hale” Cody is a young man adrift. He’d struggled with his posh life for just over a year, and went on an adventure to “find himself” when he thought the need for him at his own company was overblown. Cody Tech was started by his father, and everyone assumed he’d just take the reins once he finished schooling, but Oliver didn’t feel like he’d earned his position as CEO. While on his journey towards himself, Oliver’s parents were killed in a car wreck, and Oliver’s idyll was at an end. The truth of his adoption was revealed by the attorneys of the estate, and Oliver’s reeling from a sense of complete loss. Who was his true family? Not only didn’t he know this big secret about himself, how could he trust his parents’ decisions? His shenanigans and drunken rages have destabilized the company, and caused a major shake-up. While Oliver is mostly too distraught to care, he notices a woman, Holland, working late at the company, and admires how she doesn’t take his crap. Seeing that she’s working on a product he’d developed with his dad, he’s intrigued, and wants to help her fine-tune it.

Through his repeated attempts at connecting with Holland, Oliver learns a lot about himself and his company. He learns about her childhood and feels a kinship for lost familial connections. He learns his company has a long way to go to overcome the ingrained misogyny and sexism. His attraction to Holland is a welcome advent into his broken emotional state, and Holland returns his interest–until she learns he’s the CEO. By then, however, they’ve already gotten physical, and hooked MLB for the project Holland developed and Oliver tweaked.

Then, there’s drama. It’s all really rational and reasonable: Holland not wanting people to believe she climbed the corporate ladder using sex with Oliver, not her creativity and hard work. Oh, and there’s a couple break ups/make ups that cause each of them to really consider the meaning of family, and merit-based rewards, and feminism, and equality. I don’t want to give too much away, but the plot has a few turns I wasn’t expecting. That said, I think I mostly didn’t expect them because they were 99.9% unlikely to happen anywhere in real life, and I’m not an unrealistic person when reading realistic fiction. So, yeah, I kind of rolled my eyes on those things, and kept reading on anyway. The relationship-building between Oliver and Holland is hard work, they are young people for all their career accomplishments: both 26. Yeah, that was unrealistic, too. And, Oliver came off as sullen and spoiled for a good part of the book. Granted, I liked when he was happy, but a lot of the time he felt whiny to me. I liked Holland a lot, and wanted to assure her–like her good friends did–that she didn’t have to be so very independent. It’s really not how the corporate world works, but I could appreciate that level of naivete because of her age.

There’s a happy ending for all, and some steamy bits, too. It’s not a terribly long book, and will likely appeal to people who enjoy romances featuring smart-pants gals and a CEO that’s not too pushy.

Interested? You can find MR. BIG on Goodreads, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, iBooks, and Kobo.

About the Author:
Delancey Stewart has lived on both coasts, in big cities and small towns. She’s been a pharmaceutical rep, a personal trainer and a wine seller. Despite lots of other interests, she has always been a writer.
A military spouse and the mother of two small boys, her current job titles include pirate captain, monster hunter, Lego assembler, story reader, and tech writer. She tackles all these efforts from her current home outside Washington DC.

Catch up with Delancey on her website, Facebook, twitter and Instagram.

Thanks for popping in and keep reading my friends!

Unexpected Attraction TOPS DOWN BOTTOMS UP–Review

Hi there! Today I’m sharing a review for a newly revised and expanded M/M contemporary romance from Jay Northcote. TOPS DOWN BOTTOMS UP sounds like spring break gone severely wild, but it’s a sweet story about a man falling for a morris dancer.

I’ve adored all Jay’s books to-date including SUMMER HEAT, PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT, and THE LAW OF ATTRACTION, and TOPS is another stellar story about getting over prejudices and accepting love at the right time.

About the book:
Will Rowan’s festival fling with sexy dancer Seth lead to something more permanent?

Rowan is stuck at a folk festival helping out a mate, and it really isn’t his scene. The yoga and singing workshops are bad enough, but morris dancing is the final straw. Bearded men with beer guts prancing around wearing bells—who wants to watch that?

All Rowan’s preconceptions are shattered when he meets Seth—a morris dancer, and the stuff Rowan’s fantasies are made of. Seth persuades Rowan to come to a dancing workshop, and Rowan’s willing to do whatever it takes to get to know Seth better. The attraction is mutual, and a lesson filled with innuendo and flirting leads to an incredible night together.

When Rowan arrives home, he’s gutted to find that Seth has given him the wrong phone number. Assuming Seth did it on purpose, Rowan resolves to forget about him. But fate—and friends—conspire to get them back together. Will they manage to stay in step this time around?

A much shorter version of this story was originally published in the Not Quite Shakespeare Anthology by Dreamspinner Press. This version has been revised and extended. Almost half of it is new content.

My Review:
Rowan is a young British man helping out his pal sell cheap tat at a weekend concert festival when his mind is figuratively blown. He has memories of festival morris dancers, a rag-tag lot of beggar-types who are well known in many areas of Great Britain. Morris dancing is essentially an English folk-dancing style, and there are many “sides” (teams of dancers) in the UK and worldwide that celebrate this tradition. The groups I’ve read about wear constructed costumes of rag shirts in black and purple, but images I’d gathered often showed persons dressed in an almost lederhosen-type of outfit. They invariably involve bells attached to the legs/knees of the dancers and sometimes employ a bit of play acting with swords or handkerchiefs. as they perform their choreographed dances.

So, all that to say: Rowan thinks morris dancers are the epitome of lame until he meets Seth, a tall, dark and sexy morris dancer performing at the festival. Rowan gets conned into an open-air lesson and he and Seth truly hit it off, but is their connection due to only be a weekend affair?

Turns out Seth and Rowan don’t live to far from one another in real life. Rowan senses his connection with Seth was more than just a festival fling, but he’s disheartened that Seth doesn’t reach out as he’d promised. I liked how Rowan’s friend stepped in and cleared up some of the mystery–and all of the melancholy. Seth really did dig Rowan, but circumstances were bad, and then awkward. It’s a short, but fun, read with a total HEA for Seth and Rowan. I did love how Rowan had to admit his preconceived notions about morris dancing, and the folks on their “sides” aren’t as as dreadful as he’s intimated. He was wrong and he manfully accepted that and made his apologies. This paved the way for a sweet and sexy fling that turned into far more than he’d even anticipated.

Interested? You can find TOPS DOWN BOTTOMS UP on Goodreads and Amazon (US or UK).

About the Author:
Jay lives just outside Bristol in the West of England. He comes from a family of writers, but always used to believe that the gene for fiction writing had passed him by. He spent years only ever writing emails, articles, or website content.

One day, Jay decided to try and write a short story—just to see if he could—and found it rather addictive. He hasn’t stopped writing since.

Jay writes contemporary romance about men who fall in love with other men. He has five books published by Dreamspinner Press, and also self-publishes under the imprint Jaybird Press. Many of his books are now available as audiobooks.

Jay is transgender and was formerly known as she/her.

You can find Jay on his website, Twitter, Facebook Author Page, and Amazon.

Thanks for popping in, and keep reading my friends!

signal boost

Cephalopod Coffeehouse August 2017–ANY DREAM WILL DO-A Review

0ed81-coffeehouseHi there! Welcome one and all to the Cephalopod Coffeehouse, a cozy gathering of book lovers, meeting to discuss their thoughts regarding the tomes they enjoyed most over the previous month. Pull up a chair, order your cappuccino and join in the fun.

This month I’m featuring a sweet, clean romance from Debbie Macomber. ANY DREAM WILL DO features a female ex-con who builds a new life with the help of a little divine guidance. This is the fourth book in the New Beginnings series which includes THE GIRL’S GUIDE TO MOVING ON and IF NOT FOR YOU, but is easily enjoyed as a standalone.

About the book:
Shay Benson adored her younger brother, Caden, and that got her into trouble. When he owed money, Shay realized she would do anything to help him avoid the men who were threatening him, and she crossed lines she never should have crossed. Now, determined to start fresh, she finds herself in search of a place to stay and wanders into a church to escape from the cold.

Pastor Drew Douglas adored his wife. But when he lost her, it was all he could do to focus on his two beautiful kids, and his flock came in a distant third. Now, as he too is thinking about a fresh start, he walks through his sanctuary and finds Shay sitting in a pew.

The pair strike up a friendship—Drew helps Shay get back on her feet, and she reignites his sense of purpose—that, over time, turns into something deeper, something soulful, spiritual, and possibly romantic. Even Drew’s two children are taken with this woman who has brought light back into their lives. Perhaps most important, Shay learns to trust again as she, in turn, proves herself trustworthy to her adopted community.

But Caden’s return to town and a disastrous secret threaten to undo the life Shay has tried so hard to rebuild. It will take the utmost courage and faith if she and Drew hope to find healing and open their hearts to a brighter future.

My Review:
Shay Benson served three years after taking money form the bank where she worked to help her younger brother, Caden, pay off his drug supplier–and save his life. It’s time she never wanted to spend, but she didn’t have anyone left in her life to keep her or Caden out of harm’s way.

Now freed, she has $100 and some hand-me-down clothes with which to begin again. Tired and cold in the December weather, Shay stops into a church to find a little warmth. She also find Pastor Drew Douglas, a man still fighting his grief over the passing of his beloved wife three years prior. Pastor Drew makes it his mission to help Shay find shelter, and his connection with a womens’ center gets Shay not just a place to stay, but also counseling and job training. Over the course of a year, Shay and Drew see each other sporadically. His friend runs her jobs program, and she sometimes watches his daughter in a center-sponsored childcare. Both his children, surprisingly, gravitate toward Shay and want to include her in family dinners and special moments.It’s not long before Drew acknowledges his own attraction to Shay’s gentle nature and abundant kindness.

Though, it’s not all easy. Drew’s parishoners aren’t keen on him marrying an ex-con–not when there are so many “decent” women to marry. And, Drew’s bombarded by offers on many side before he recognizes that Shay is the gal for him. Naturally, there are some crises, and Shay falls under suspicion of wrong-doing–only to have things turn out sunny in the end.

I’ll be honest, I’m not a fan of religious romance, but I really appreciate the delicate position of a minister looking for love. It brings an interesting gravitas to a romance. There’s no steam here, but there are plenty of feels. Drew’s plagued by doubt and guilt–in his faith and his love. Shay’s a good woman who had a bad start in life, and she’s paid her dues more than twice. I was glad she found a good stable man to love her, but she’s not going to take any guff from him either. I sure liked the ‘atta girl moments, and had a few times where I shook the bed holding in my laughter. Poor Pastor! Those eligible ladies sure had high hopes, and he’s called tot he carpet a few times defending Shay from some nasty allegations. Expect a hefty helping of redemption in this one, and all the folks who initially cast a gimlet eye on Shay ended up being smitten with her in the end. Its a sweet read, and I enjoyed it.

Interested? You can find ANY DREAM WILL DO on Goodreads, Amazon, Barnes & Noble and other discount book outlets like Target, WalMart and your library, undoubtedly. I received a review copy via NetGalley.

about the Author:
Debbie Macomber is a #1 New York Times bestselling author and one of today’s most popular writers with more than 200 million copies of her books in print worldwide. In her novels, Macomber brings to life compelling relationships that embrace family and enduring friendships, uplifting her readers with stories of connection and hope. Macomber’s novels have spent over 990 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list. Sixteen of these novels hit the number one spot.

There’s so much more to know about her, but I’d suggest heading to her website, Facebook, or twitter for all that!

Thanks for popping in and don’t forget to pop in and see my fellow Coffeehouse reviewers sharing their fave reads of the month.

Strong Love in BLENDED NOTES–Review and Giveaway!

Hi there! Today I’m so excited to share a review, interview and giveaway for a new contemporary M/M romance from Lilah Suzanne. BLENDED NOTES is the third book in the Spotlight series and features the Happily Ever After for Grady and Nico, who we met in book one, BROKEN RECORDS, which you should probably read first. I’ve also liked book two, BURNING TRACKS, though you don’t have to read that one to enjoy BLENDED NOTES.

About the book:
Grady Dawson’s future looks bright. He’s at the top of his country music career, has a close-knit group of friends who have become his Nashville family, and has found solid ground in his personal life as he plans his intimate, private wedding with Nico, his stylist turned lover turned love of his life. It seems Grady has finally left his difficult childhood and tumultuous youth behind.

That is, until his past shows up on his doorstep, news of his upcoming nuptials is leaked to the media, and his record company starts issuing demands that challenge his integrity as an artist and as a person. The foundation Grady built his new life on begins to crumble and fast. Can he have his future if he’s haunted by his past? Can he continue making music if it means comprising his convictions? Must he make the ultimate choice between a private life with Nico and the public demands of his career?

How about a little taste?

Grady’s earliest memory of his mother is watching her leave. It wasn’t the first time she dropped him off at Memaw and Granddaddy’s house, and the remembered moment itself is unremarkable: He’s standing by the road; a cloud of dirt from the driveway into the trailer park lingers hazily in the air; he can see the taillights of her car lit red at the stop sign. The right one blinks a signal, the car turns, and she’s gone. Memaw came to collect him soon after, and he doesn’t recall what he did next—whatever rambunctious five-year-old boys like to do. Maybe he got on his bike and tore around the neighborhood, training wheels be damned. Or maybe he found a squirrel to harass with a makeshift slingshot of forked stick and rubber band. Maybe Memaw plunked him down in front of their old jumpy television.

Sit down for five seconds, Grady. Land’s sake! she’d say, with a look rather similar to the one Nico has when Grady comes around to the aisle where Nico is browsing for home decor. Grady had wandered off when he spotted an old gramophone on display.

“There you are.”

“Here I am,” Grady confirms, dropping a kiss onto Nico’s cheek. Nico leans into him with an easy, comfortable affection that grounds Grady, makes him feel wanted and safe. Grady takes a clear glass bottle from the shelf filled with clear glass bottles of all shapes and sizes and colors and asks, “Do we need apothecary jars?” The label on the jar reads: Green Pain Pills.

Nico takes the jar and turns, holding it up so it catches the sunlight streaming through the plate glass windows in the front of the boutique. “I mean, we don’t not need apothecary jars.” He tips his head and narrows his eyes, assessing the jar before putting it back on the shelf. Nico is determined to fill their new home with things that represent them; it’s sweet, but, for Grady, unnecessary. Nico expresses himself visually: his clothes, his hair, the elegant yet assertive way he holds himself. Of course he’d want knickknacks and furniture and art that speak to the life they’re building together. For Grady, it’s less tangible, not a particular thing he could put on a shelf. It’s two toothbrushes in the holder, the sound of a familiar car pulling into the garage, the lingering scent of Nico’s cologne in their bed, the way Nico brushes a peck to Grady’s lips before he leaves: never a goodbye, always a see you later.

“Did you find something you wanted?” Nico moves on to a display of antique paperweights. One looks like a crystal ball.

“Oh, yeah.” Grady lifts his eyebrows and quirks his lips. Nico shakes his head at that, picks up the crystal ball paperweight, and passes it slowly from hand to hand. “I knew you were going to say that and yet—”

“And yet you still asked,” Grady finishes, teasing, “Why, I think you may even like it.”

Nico hums. He puts the paperweight back. “I suppose I must, considering that I am marry—” He snaps his mouth shut, then glances around to be sure no one overheard him. They’re alone in the store, but still Nico mouths the end of that sentence: “Marrying you.”

And, lord, but does that thrill Grady to his bones, silent or spoken or acted out with charades. He’s marrying Nico, they’re getting married, he and Nico are marrying each other. Grady can tell his own smile is goofy, and Nico has one to match. In the quiet corner of this very unusual store, they can be openly giddy—for a moment.

Some thoughts from author Lilah Suzanne

Today I’m interviewing Lilah Suzanne author of Blended Notes, the third and final book in the Spotlight series. Hi Lilah, thank you for agreeing to this interview. Tell us a little about yourself, your background, and your current book.

Do you have pictures that you use for your characters? Can you share them with us? For Grady my character visual inspiration is a model named Cole Monahan and for Nico, a model named Diasuke Ueda. I’d like to encourage you all to do a Google image search on both of them for a little, uh, inspiration of your own.

What kind of book would you like to write that people would see as a huge departure for you? Since my books are all contemporary rom-coms that stick pretty close to reality, at some point I’d like to try a historical romance or maybe a fantasy or sci-fi story, really dig into research and world building in a way I haven’t done before.

Have you ever killed a character? Was it traumatic for you? Though I don’t kill off any characters in Blended Notes per say, Grady is coping with the death of his estranged father, which brings up a lot of old grief for his grandparents who raised him, so this book does deal with death and loss quite a bit. It wasn’t really traumatic for me, I knew it was coming and it was necessary for Grady’s development, though Grady might disagree!

Favorite location you’ve ever written about? I have a new short story out right now called After the Sunset about two strangers who inherit a farm that’s set in the Snoqualmie Valley in Washington state, about an hour outside of Seattle. It’s the most incredible place I’ve ever been, like a magical forest with green moss covering everything and crystal clear water and these lush green mountains. I’ve been dying to write a story set there for a while, and finally had a plot to go with it.

What’s your favorite season and favorite activity for that season? Fall. Does bundling up in blankets, drinking a warm drink and reading count as an activity? Or is that really the only fall activity worth doing?

My Review:

Grady Dawson and Nico Takahashi made quite a splash in the country music scene when they fell for one another back in BROKEN RECORDS. Grady is an up-and-coming country singer and Nico a flamboyant stylist in LA, but they’ve relocated to Nashville and Nico, a private man, is settling into the celebrity status–not that he’s happy with some of the irate fans who blame him for Grady “dumping” a popular female country singer…

It’s good though. They’re planning their secluded, paparazzi-free, wedding and a life together. Only, well, Grady’s under pressure to change the single he wants to release on his forthcoming album. It’s a love song he wrote for Nico, and clearly talks about deep love between men–a topic too scandalous for the record label’s management. In fact, they’re holding up the release of his album until he makes the change which puts Grady into a “Breach of Contract” situation. And, the potential for Grady to lose everything–money, property, and his recorded music–in a lawsuit is high. It’s enough to drive Grady into depression, and kills his muse.

Add to this, Nico’s struggling with the wedding plans, the lack of privacy, and Grady’s self-isolation. He wants to help Grady find his bearings, and this might include opening some rather deep wounds in the hunt for Grady’s parents to be guests at the wedding. Grady’s been so long estranged, he has no desire to reconnect, but he might not have a choice.

This was an interesting read, with a lyrical and nostalgic tone. Grady tells this whole book from start to finish, and we get some insights into the darkness of his childhood, which includes substance abuse, abandonment and poverty. He was raised by his grandparents from early childhood because his too-young parents couldn’t stay employed or sober. I loved the realistic experiences we re-live through Grady’s memories. The juxtaposition lends a palpable fear to the legal battle Grady’s refusal to re-write his love song brings to his present. What if he’s soon-to-be destitute? Should he even marry Nico who could be saddled with Grady’s debt? And, should Grady just swallow his artistic pride and re-record the song so it’s palatable to heterosexuals? This quandary of conscience forms the biggest conflict of the book, and it’s both poignant and easily accessible to the reader.

The resolution to the conflicts are interesting and engaging. I had already lost my heart to Nico, but he swept me off my feet again with all his changes to accommodate Grady and their life together. Likewise, Grady’s tension and inner conflicts are so raw and exposed that he’s impossible not to connect with on multiple levels. Bits of steam here and there, but those aren’t the parts that struck me hardest. The end of the plot lines are so positive that it’s beyond HEA. These characters are ones to root for and cheer on throughout, and their happiness merits multiple celebrations. Good thing we get to experience it over and again.

Interested? You can find BLENDED NOTES on Goodreads, Interlude Press, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, iTunes, Target, Kobo, Smashwords, Book Depository, and Indiebound.

****GIVEAWAY****

Click on this a Rafflecopter giveaway below for your chance to win a $25 Interlude Press gift card or one of FIVE ebooks.
Good luck and keep reading my friends!

About the Author:
Lilah Suzanne has been writing actively since the sixth grade, when a literary magazine published her essay about an uncle who lost his life to AIDS. A freelance writer, she has also authored a children’s book and has a devoted following in the fan fiction community. She is also the author of Interlude Press books Spice, Pivot and Slip, and Broken Records, which was named a Top Pick by RT Book Reviews Magazine.

Find Lilah online on her website, Goodreads, Facebook and twitter.

Making it Work: THE BEAUTY OF US–Review and Giveaway!

Hi there! Today I’m so excited to share a release day review and giveaway for the next book in Kristen Proby’s Fusion contemporary romance series. THE BEAUTY OF US is the fourth book in this series and features a romance for Riley, one of the five friends who own and run their sultry restaurant, Seduction. I’ve really enjoyed the other three books, LISTEN TO ME, CLOSE TO YOU, and BLUSH FOR ME so I couldn’t wait to read on.

There’s an excerpt and book giveaway below!

About the book:
New York Times bestselling author Kristen Proby delivers another sizzling novel in her delectable and sexy Fusion series.
Riley Gibson is over the moon at the prospect of having her restaurant, Seduction, on the Best Bites TV network. This could be the big break she’s been waiting for. But the idea of having an in-house show on a regular basis is a whole other matter. Their lives would be turned upside down, and convincing Mia, her best friend and head chef of Seduction, that having cameras in her kitchen every day is a good idea is daunting. Still, Riley knows it’s an opportunity she can’t afford to pass on. And when she meets Trevor Cooper, the show’s executive producer, she’s stunned by their intense chemistry.

Trevor’s sole intention is to persuade Riley to allow Best Bites TV to do a show on her restaurant. But when he walks into Riley’s office, he stops dead in his tracks. The professional, aloof woman on the phone is incredibly beautiful and funny. But can he convince her that he’s interested in Riley for himself? Or is he using the undeniable pull between them to persuade her to agree to his offer?

How about a yummy taste…

“There seems to be an explosion in the jackass population,” I reply, and sigh, passing my glass to Kat for a refill.

“Where are you meeting them?” he asks, and I bite my lip.

“I don’t want to tell you.”

“Online,” he says with a nod.

“I didn’t say that!”

“Didn’t have to. If you met him at the gym or the grocery store, or somewhere else in person, you wouldn’t be embarrassed.”

“I’m not embarrassed.”

“Yes, you are. Otherwise, you wouldn’t mind telling me.”

“Fine.” I sigh and rub my forehead with my fingers. “I met them online.”

“Stop that,” he says.

“I don’t know where else I’d meet people,” I reply. “I’m at work at least fifty hours a week. I don’t do school or clubs or church, and I rarely go to the grocery store because I always eat here.”

“I could stop feeding you,” Mia interjects and I toss her a glare.

“I’m just saying, if you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you’ve always gotten.”

“I don’t understand any of the words you just said.” I squint at him, trying to process.

“Switch it up,” he says with a grin. “Try to meet people somewhere else. I mean, you didn’t meet me online, and I’m not an asshole.”

“Sure, you’re cute, and you look like you have your shit together, but I suspect that once I got to know you I’d learn that you have mommy issues and fourteen dogs.”

“You might,” he says with a thoughtful nod. “I do hide those things well. All I’m saying is, stop using the dating sites and try meeting people in real life.”

“Yeah. Easy for you to say.” I pout into my wineglass. “Do I need to send you some money for this counseling session?”

“Nah, the first one’s on me,” he says, tossing that crazy-hot smile at me again. “Just don’t combine Star Wars and Star Trek anymore and that’s payment enough for me.”

He pulls a few bills out of his wallet and tosses them on the bar, then stands to leave.

“Have a good night, and good luck,” he says.

“Thanks.” Just as he’s almost out of view, I call out. “Wait! I didn’t ask your name.”

“Trevor,” he says, and my stomach immediately does at least four cartwheels. “Trevor Cooper.”

“You’re early,” is all I can think to say. My cheeks burning, my fingertips immediately tremble. “You’re not supposed to be here for two more days.”

“I like to come early. Get the lay of the land, that sort of thing.” He smiles and waves. “See you in a couple of days.”

He walks away, and as soon as I hear the front door close, I turn to my friends and just stare at them in utter horror.

“Tell me that didn’t just happen.”

My Review:
Riley is a marketing exec working with her four best friends at their jointly-owned cabaret bar/restaurant Seduction. She’s just convinced all the partners that a food television special would help boost Seduction into the upper echelon of restaurants, and feels really good about their prospects. In fact, her professional success is far more assured than her personal success as Riley’s suffered many a bad date. She’s pretty much given up on finding a decent man. While lamenting it one night at the bar, a stranger offers some sage advice–and Riley’s mortified to learn that this gentleman of wisdom is the producer of the network special, Trevor Cooper.

Trevor is a 37 year-old divorced man whose had his share of difficult relationships. His ex-wife was a two-timer and he’s still reeling from that betrayal. He finds Riley to be attractive, but he wants to keep things professional. However, he sees how disappointed she is by the schlumps she dates and decides to offer her one “perfect” date so she can experience a fun night out with a decent man. And, then Trevor’s caught: he wants more.

Only, Trevor is only supposed to be in Portland for a few weeks while he films the Seduction special. It’s not long enough to build anything real, is it?

Riley and Trevor make the most of their short time together, soon deciding that they might need to take this relationship into long-distance mode, but that’s not really where their hearts lay. And, it’s complicated by some (over-the-top) dramatics by two women in Trevor’s past. For me, that was a bit messy–and unrealistic–and those interactions are the capstone of Riley’s issues with separation. She needs direct communication, on the regular, and Trevor’s inability to provide it leads Riley to stand up for herself and make a painful choice. I liked how she stood on her own, rather than caved for a poor substitute of her needs. Riley’s a strong gal, and she knows her worth. Meanwhile, Trevor made an abrupt shift into “Clueless” the second he boarded his plane for LA. Not that he didn’t get a clue when his pals stepped into the picture and pried his eyes wide. And, his grand gesture was pretty sweet.

There’s lost of love and sexytimes packed into this shorter novel, and fans of the series will love this return to Seduction and the sexy gals who run it. It’s the fourth book in the series, but reads well on its own. And, the end sets up the final book–romance for snarly chef Mia–with a dramatic flair. I’m really looking forward to reading it!

Interested? You can find THE BEAUTY OF US on Goodreads, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, iTunes, and Kobo.

****GIVEAWAY****

Click on this Rafflecopter giveaway link for your chance to win autographed copies of LISTEN TO ME, CLOSE TO YOU and BLUSH FOR ME.
Good luck and keep reading my friends!

Author Pic_MontanaAbout the Author:

New York Times and USA Today Bestselling Author Kristen Proby is the author of the popular With Me in Seattle series. She has a passion for a good love story and strong characters who love humor and have a strong sense of loyalty and family. Her men are the alpha type—fiercely protective and a bit bossy—and her ladies are fun, strong, and not afraid to stand up for themselves. Kristen spends her days with her muse in the Pacific Northwest. She enjoys coffee, chocolate, and sunshine. And naps.

Visit Kristen online on her website, Facebook, twitter, Goodreads, or sign up for her newsletter.
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