Friday, 3 June 2016

Let Your Heart Decide by Lily G. Blunt: Release Day Post with Excerpt, buy-links, Giveaway and Review


Let Your Heart Decide
by
Lily G Blunt


Format: ebook and paperback

Language: English (UK English spellings)

Book Length: Novel (69K), 304 pages

Genres: Contemporary, Gay, Erotic Romance, Mystery/Suspense, Paranormal, Taboo/Incest

Heat Rating: Burning/3 Flames

Release Date: 3rd June 2016

Please note this is a taboo romance featuring two brothers.


Blurb

New house, new job. A new start with his brother….

Two out of three isn’t bad, right?

Rhys returns to his hometown and must face the brother he’s been avoiding for two years. In his heart, Rhys still hopes to recapture the bond they once shared.

Jake willingly offers him the hand of friendship, but Rhys is reluctant to confront their past, fearing it will only rip them apart again.

When Rhys sees ghostly figures in the grounds of a local historic house, it leads him to investigate their shocking past—and to face his heart’s true desire.




Excerpt

THAT NIGHT my thoughts blurred into dreams as I drifted to sleep, filling my head with memories of when I was a boy. I pictured Jake running with me down grass-topped sand dunes, flying our kites on wispy tufted downs, and rambling over the ruins of some ramshackle old castle. My heart soared in my dreams. I recalled the many nights we told each other ghost stories under the tents we’d constructed from blankets in our bedroom, times we snuggled under our duvets and shone torches under our chins, making scary faces.
In that haze of half-sleep, not sure if I’d slept yet or not, I jerked awake. Yes, wide awake now, not an interrupted dream.
And there it was again.
A cry.
Outside.
And close by.
Not a baby nor a fox, but a man. I lay there, heart thumping, straining to hear in the darkness, trying to pick out the sound and its direction. But nothing came.
In the long quiet that followed, I remembered again how Jake used to hold me when I was scared, or when I came home from school crying because bullies had called me names or pushed me around. He’d stood up for me, protected me, and one day the bullying stopped. I always thought it was because of Jake’s intervention, although he never told me what he did to make it better. I never asked him. One day I would.
The quiet of the night buzzed in my ears.
Maybe the cry was a dream, after all.

My Review

Let me start by making something very clear: this is a TABOO story. The lovers in this story are BROTHERS. If this is not to your liking, this book and this review are probably not for you J

With that out of the way I want to say that I loved this story and count myself lucky I was allowed to beta read it for the author. There are a few levels to this story and for me they all worked. This book starts on a very emotional note, drawing the reader in immediately, before settling down a bit and introducing the situation and characters. Except that the reader isn’t allowed to relax for very long because next thing we (and Rhys) know, ghostly apparitions keep both him and his audience guessing.

The attraction between Rhys and Jake is palatable just as Rhys’s doubts and hesitations make perfect sense. Their reunion after two years apart and their journey back towards each other had me on the edge of my seat even more than the ghostly part of the story had. While the mystery certainly captivated me I couldn’t wait to see when and how Rhys and Jake would find a way to be all they were destined to become.

The secondary characters in this story were equally fascinating. It took me a while to figure Rhys’s neighbour and his role in the story out, and even longer for me to make up my mind about him. I love that; there’s nothing quite like a story that keeps me guessing to rope me in and keep me hooked. Between the ghosts, the unconventional love story and Philip, there was more than enough in this story to keep me captivated and turning the pages as fast as I could read them.

I was rather impressed with the balance the author managed to strike between the very realistic angst especially Rhys experiences whenever he contemplates giving in to his feelings and desires and the relative ease with which he eventually surrenders to that which cannot be denied. Maybe most of the people in their lives show more acceptance for the  situation than you’re likely to encounter in real life, but for me it worked, especially since this is also a ghost story and therefore only loosely set in our world at best anyway. J Besides, I like my endings happy, even if they’re happier than they’re like to be in reality because I’ll never stop hoping that one day tolerance—both when it comes to the books we read and to the relationships we want to have in our lives—will be the norm.

If you enjoy your books with supernatural elements and a healthy dose of taboo romance, I highly recommend Let Your Heart Decide.



Buy Links

Paperback available via


eBook will be available on

Smashwords   ARe    PayHip



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About the Author

Lily G. Blunt writes contemporary gay romance. She loves to explore the relationship between two men and the intensity of their physical and emotional attraction. Angst often features in her stories as she feels this demonstrates the depth of the men's feelings for each other. Lily is forever writing imaginary scenes and plots in her head, but only a few ever make it to the page. There never seems to be enough hours in the day despite having left the teaching profession to concentrate on her writing!

Lily discovered the wonderful world of m/m romance novels five years ago via fan fiction and went on to write stories in her spare time. With the encouragement of her friends and readers she decided to publish some of her work. Lily subsequently self-published several stories and later published short stories with Torquere Press, Wayward Ink Publishing, and Pride Publishing.
Lily is an avid supporter of GLBTQ rights and advocates equality for all. She was recently a steward for Pride in London. She lives in central England with her rather bemused husband and a 'mad as a bag of frogs' Shetland Sheepdog called Barney.

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