Tag: LGBT

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#BookReview: Aiden Inspired by Blake Allwood

Masterful, With a Singular (non-fatal) Flaw. 20 years ago right around now, I gave an extemporaneous speech in my high school speech class that told this fantastical tale of alien adventures that took place over an extended time period. I thought it was an awesome story, and I had fun telling it. I thought the speech went amazing! And then my classmates and teacher started chiming in just absolutely eviscerating it. As it turned out, I had forgotten the very premise I had been told to work with: that the story had begun just the night before.

This book is an absolute masterpiece of a romance, with the fairly explicit sex MM romance is somewhat known for. The primary characters are charming in their own ways, and each has their flaws that are never glossed over as is the case of some tales in the general romance genre. The settings are amazing, and the extended time in the remote southeastern corner of Washington State (I googled the location) was astounding – it worked to further the plot while also enhancing the story.

The one flaw this story has is the same one my speech had all those years ago – in telling such a superior tale, the author gets his timings mixed up quite a bit. Things that happen overnight are spoken of in the section after speaking of things that happened over a much longer period of time,and this is a recurring problem of this tale – enough that I felt I had no choice but to ding it a star, as a one time blip of even that level could have been simply noted in this review yet forgiven on the rating.

Truly a masterful work, and I want to read the stories alluded to in the epilogue… 😉

This review of Aiden Inspired by Blake Allwood was originally published on April 18, 2019.

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#BookReview: Dead Wrong by Pandora Pine

Ronan Expects A Friend… And Gets A Father. This was my first book of Pine’s long running Cold Case Pychic books after having read both of the spinoff series Ghost Detective books so far. And despite being book 11, a reader truly can come into this series and not be lost – said reader will just know how several things turn out over the previous 10 books that will be spoilers to those tales, but with this being a romance series to begin with most of them are fairly obvious anyway.

In this particular tale, series original Ronan O’Mara answers the door as he heads back to his first day at work in several months expecting a friend… and finds his father there, asking for his help. The mystery here is fairly typical of Pine in my experience, with mostly detective based questioning people and finding evidence of things with a few tense moments of confrontation in semi-dangerous situations.

Great read, and a solid entry point into the series if you don’t mind the mild spoilers. Very much looking forward to more.

This review of Dead Wrong by Pandora Pine was originally published on April 10, 2019.

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#BookReview: Flight by K’Anne Meinel

Take Flight. This was a very interesting character driven book centered on Jessica Penn. We follow Jess over the course of nearly a decade as she is awoken to the news that her wife has died in some form of plane crash and we follow her through all that is revealed in the aftermath. The story has a major swerve about 50% in, as the narrative of the first half changes and a new villain emerges – with direct ties to the original. Great story excellently written.

This review of Flight by K’Anne Meinel was originally published on April 5, 2019.

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#BookReview: Forever Home by Blake Roland

Fur-ever Home. This was an excellent story that also served as a potential launching pad for a new series, and it executed both brilliantly. Samir and Luis come from opposite ends of the economic spectrum, but are both highly damaged in their own ways. Roland does a superb job of showing these two come together to heal the other via the power of love, and dog lovers in particular will love the idea of a rescue shelter being central to this series. Very much looking forward to more from this author and in this series.

This review of Forever Home by Blake Roland was originally published on March 7, 2019.

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#BookReview: Ghost Story by Pandora Pine

Beware Hitchhiking Ghosts! In this sequel to Ghost of Himself, we come back to Jude and Cope’s slow-burn romance as it continues to slowly burn, but with some pretty significant developments here for Jude in particular. All of this happens against the story of a mysterious Woman in White who is haunting and even outright harming a 15 yo boy. And yes, there are hitchhiking ghosts involved as well – including ghost HTML in my read through! Excellent story yet again, and I’m very much looking forward to coming back to Jude and Cope in their next adventure!

This review of Ghost Story by Pandora Pine was originally published on March 5, 2019.

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#BookReview: Coming Home by Carly Marie

Sophomore Effort Arguably Stronger Than Debut. This is number 2 in the series and blatantly labeled as such, but it *can* be read independently of the first book, if you don’t mind major spoilers of what happens in the first book. I was fortunate enough to read that first book as an ARC as well, and Marie is absolutely beginning a pattern – but a pattern which I’ve never seen from any other author. The books are strong, relatable romances featuring a large extended family on at least one side (the connective tissue in the series) that could work no matter the genders of the pairing. But where Marie truly shines is picking up on “less than normal” kinks and sexualities and building strong characters that happen to have them. Very nice to catch up with the couple from the first book and the entire extended family originally introduced there, and devastating to have some secrets hinted at in the first book revealed here. Absolutely looking forward to the next tale in this series and future work from this author.

This review of Coming Home by Carly Marie was originally published on February 27, 2018.

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#BookReview: At War with a Broken Heart by Dahlia Donovan

Simply Excellent. This is a gay polyamorous romance wherein each of the three men in the relationship have different reasons to be broken, and the author does an excellent job of showing all the warts yet also showing how they heal each other. Truly an excellent romance, even without my next points.

One of the three men in question is Autistic, as is this reader. And this is one of the better representations of Autism I’ve ever seen in a novel. The author understands Autistics in such depth that she either is Autistic herself or has a very close relationship with an Autistic – I’ve never known anyone else to understand us this deeply. Her discussions of meltdowns and personhood in particular sound identical to what many Autistics describe, including myself.

Overall a truly remarkable work, and I look forward to reading more from this author.

This review of At War with a Broken Heart by Dahlia Donovan was originally published on February 26, 2019.

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#BookReview: Kissed In Paradise by Crystal Lacy

Sexy Paradise. In this latest Valentine’s Inc installment, we have a short and volcano-worthy second romance where two boys from North Carolina reconnect on Hawaii a decade after the incident (that opens the book) where one of them stumbled into seeing the other giving a third guy a blowjob in the locker room. The overall story is truly a condensed MM contemporary romance, with all that this entails – questioning, coming together, lots and lots of sex – much of it described in detail – and a HFN. Overall solid work, and I’m really hoping to see these two appear in future books from this author.

This review of Kissed In Paradise by Crystal Lacy was originally published on February 11, 2019.

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#BookReview: Made In Manhattan by Ana Newfolk

Made In Endurance. With the ending of Made In New York, this reader was hoping for a quick turnaround in story timeline – I wanted to see Max’s plans play out!

Unfortunately we learn early in this book that it didn’t, and that both Isaac and Max had life intervene in their desires for a relationship. Combine this with some miscommunications on both directions and the sheer physical distance of your lover being on another continent literally on the other side of the ocean, and, well… they needed help. Fortunately, friends step in to do just that, and between all the characters both Max and Isaac wind up being able to overcome everything to ultimately get the HEA that you know is coming since this is a romance book.

Excellent story that draws you in and won’t let you go. Very much recommended.

This review of Made in Manhattan by Ana Newfolk was originally published on January 21, 2019.

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#BookReview: Made in New York by Ana Newfolk

Solid Introduction. Isaac and Max meet by accident and emergency at a conference. Over the next 36 hours or so, they manage to connect and fall in love. But what happens next? Well, we’re going to have to find out in the next (full length) book, as this short story was just meant to serve as our introduction to them and to allow them to rapidly fall in love at first sight. Which it did superbly. This book has a little bit of everything in its short length. Action (trapped in a fire!), drama (who is this other guy he is mentioning?), fun and flirting, hot sex, deep emotions. Newfolk truly manages to capture a bit of everything, and do it very well. By the end of this book you’ll be hoping you have the next one handy, and fortunately I do. So here I go!

This review of Made in New York by Ana Newfolk was originally published on January 17, 2019.