The Beginning - Sirius Wolves #6 by Victoria Sue: Release Blitz

Author: Victoria Sue

Release Date: July 28

Length: 173 pages

Buy Links:

Amazon US

Amazon UK

ARe

Sirius Wolves Series 

Blurb

The Winter Circle is on the rise and the most desperate hour for humankind is at hand. Working from the shadows, the dark god Anubis, jealous enemy of the goddess Sirius, is setting years' long plans in motion, a master scheme that will strike home in the heart of Jefferson Pack.

Nate is a survivor.  He survived rejection by his father and his pack when he was a child. He survived being alone, kidnapped, starved, and tortured. But the more he recovers, the more he realizes he seems to be developing abilities that surpass those of the Supreme Alphas.

More than that, though, he can't move past the scar of knowing he was responsible for killing Darric, even though the Alpha was resurrected by Orion and Nate was forgiven; he can't let go of his fear that there is something terrible hiding in the many holes in the memories of his childhood.

The Winter Circle strikes, and there is a traitor within the pack, one who means to see the end of all hybrids, including Nate and Kellan's pups.

But as all hell breaks loose Nate's greatest fear is not the danger that surrounds him, it's the danger that hides within him. When Nate's finds out his true purpose, and terrible secrets are revealed, will love triumph over evil? Or will the secret that Nate carries just be the death of them all?

Author Bio

Victoria Sue has loved books for as long as she can remember. Books were always what pocket money went on and what usually Father Christmas brought. When she ran out of her kid's adventure stories, she would go raid her mom's. By the age of eight she was devouring classics like Little Women, and fell in love with love stories.

She's still in love with them. Any size, any shape, any creature - love is love, no matter what it says on the box.

In fact if they don't fit very neatly into any box she loves them even more! She has a very patient husband and three wonderful children. In 2010 in search of adventure they all moved from the UK to the US and are happily settled in Florida. Finally, after reading love stories for so long, she decided to write her own.

www.victoriasue.com

@vickysuewrites

https://www.facebook.com/victoriasueauthor/– sign up for my newsletter and download a free story The Wrong Alpha

Tailor Made by Josephine Myles

101 Pages

Tailor Made #1

E-book

The blurb:

When Mr. Wrong measures up just right! 

College tart Felix McAvoy is used to causing a stir with his conceptual art pranks, but for his final show he’s planning something even more outrageous. In a last ditch attempt to seduce his jaded tutor, Felix plans to wear the canvas in a subversive display. However, if he’s going to do this right he’ll need a tailor-made canvas suit. Fortunately, he knows just the tailor to turn to for the favour—and Felix isn’t shy about offering favours of a very different kind in return.

First year fashion student Andrew Wheeler knows Felix by reputation only–and plans to keep things that way. Andrew’s determined to save himself for the man of his dreams, and Felix couldn’t be more different from his ideal Mr Right. There’s only one use Andrew will contemplate for Felix’s body: a model for his end of year project. Trouble is, it’s going to involve a lot of close contact with a nearly naked Felix, and Andrew’s never had temptation quite so close at hand!

My thoughts:

Oh my, this was a fun read. Not so much enemies to lovers but definitely opposites attract. Finding two more different men would be hard. There’s Felix, a happy go lucky, proud to be slutty, extrovert who appears to be living to make himself stand out. Andrew on the other hand leads a quiet life, has decided to wait for Mr. Right, and really doesn’t approve of Felix’s outlandish behaviour. But they need each other and once they got together it was fun to see how quickly their personal rules and lifestyles went out the window. Different as they are, both Andrew and Felix put huge smiles on my face while reading their story.

The slow, and initially reluctant, thawing of Andrew was a delight to observe. He was so adorable as he tried to come up with logical reasons for abandoning his ‘waiting for Mr. Right’ philosophy and giving in to the Felix shaped temptation.

And Felix was just as cute as Andrew, as he, without a second thought or even being fully aware of doing it, fell into a steady—be it unnamed—arrangement with Andrew and let go of his slutty ‘only pick a man up for a night’ way of life.

I laughed out loud at the, very British, banter between these too. Their internal rationalisations for changing their way of living made me smile. And then of course came the moment when it all appeared to go to shit (which is an appropriate metaphor, considering Felix’s idea) because at no point had Felix and Andrew talked about what they were doing.

Now, as most of you’ll know, I usually don’t get on very well with ‘lack of communication’ stories. But in this book it actually made sense that they didn’t talk. After all, they had an arrangement and no reason to think the other would be interested in changing it, so why upset the applecart and make themselves vulnerable?

I’m so happy I got to meet Felix and Andrew, and I’m even happier that it won’t be too long before I will be able to read what happens to them next. I’m pretty sure I’ll find myself smiling, laughing, and loving them once again when Custom Fit comes out.

Buy Links:

Amazon         Amazon UK             ARe

Bitten by Mistake by Annabelle Jacobs: Review Tour & Giveaway

Author: Annabelle Jacobs

Release Date: July 28 2016

Length: 81,000 words

Amazon

Cover Artist: Natasha Snow

Blurb

From animosity to searing passion in a lunar cycle… but can their bond survive?

Wolf shifter Nathan Kohl’s pack is his whole life. Arrogant and handsome, he avoids commitment to anything or anyone outside of his pack. He works hard, plays hard, and pursues humans as lovers because there’s little to no chance of him forming a permanent bond. However, when Jared Taylor comes into Nathan’s life, every rule is broken.

After a bad experience, Jared vowed to never get involved with another shifter, no matter how much they got under his skin. Despite being physically attracted to Nathan, who’s all kinds of hot, Jared only sees an arrogant, domineering bastard.

A disastrous case of mistaken identity throws Nathan and Jared together until the next full moon. Forced to spend the next twenty-eight days in close proximity, they can no longer ignore the powerful attraction between them. Passion ignites, and their relationship takes a turn neither of them wanted.

But when the full moon comes, everything might change again.

My Thoughts

Up until now I more or less stayed away from paranormal stories. Not because I have anything against them, or because I thought I wouldn’t enjoy them but because I need a new (sub)genre to get addicted to like I need a hole in the head. I’m already struggling to read all the books I’m interested in as it is. And then I read the blurb for Bitten by Mistake and didn’t even hesitate; I had to read the book.

The good news is that I loved the book. The (for me) not so good news is that I now do find myself with a sub-genre to add to my must read list.

I’m not entirely sure where to start, there is so much I loved about this story. I adored Jared and Nathan and the constant push and pull between them. When the story starts Jared (for good reasons which aren’t revealed until later on) has very good reasons to keep his distance from shifters. So to say he’s unhappy when Nathan accidentally binds him and thus ‘condemns’ both of them to spending four weeks together, would be a gross understatement.

Nathan is not a whole lot happier about the situation. While he doesn’t dislike Jared or humans in general, he’s only too aware that having bitten and possibly infected a human without prior permission could have very dire consequences for both of them. The situation leaves him with no choice, he has to keep Jared both a secret and close to him until the next full moon will reveal whether or not Jared has been changed.

It isn’t long before an undeniable attraction between them pulls them close. What initially appears to be ‘only’ mind-blowing sex soon reveals itself as the two of them having bonded. The bond is as confusing as it is exhilarating but the big problem is that just as no one can predict whether or not Jared will change, nobody knows whether or not their bond will survive the next full moon. And as much as neither Nathan nor Jared had wanted to be in the situation they find themselves in, they want to live without each other and the bond between them even less.

And in the background unrest in the shifter world may mean Nathan and Jared won’t live to see the next full moon together.

This book had me hooked from the opening paragraph. The story is filled with tension, danger, very hot and passionate sex, two fabulous protagonists, and a cast of fascinating secondary characters. I couldn’t help but ache for Nathan and Jared as they can’t be sure whether the strong emotions they experience are the result of genuine attraction or their bonding. 

This book is filled with all the feels. From Jared coming to terms with his attraction to Nathan despite his hatred of shifters, to the fear both of them experience that they may not feel the same after the full moon had me racing through the book as fast as I possibly could, just to make sure they’d get to their happily ever after.

If I read the epilogue right, this may well be the first title in a series. If I’m right about that, I can now stop worrying about whether or not I’ll be reading more paranormal titles in the future. Because even if I never try such a title by another author, I know I won’t be able to resist the opportunity to visit this world and these characters again. Or, if you’d like me to be really succinct: This is a fabulous book.

Author Bio

Annabelle Jacobs lives in the South West of England with three rowdy children, and two cats. An avid reader of fantasy herself for many years, Annabelle now spends her days writing her own stories. They're usually either fantasy or paranormal fiction, because she loves building worlds filled with magical creatures, and creating stories full of action and adventure. Her characters may have a tough time of it—fighting enemies and adversity—but they always find love in the end.

Author Links

Twitter         Website        Facebook

Email – ajacobsfiction@gmail.com

Giveaway

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An interview with Tantalus, aka K.C. Wells….

I’m delighted to welcome Tantalus, also—or should I say, better—known as K.C. Wells to my blog today. Followers of my reviews will be aware that I’ve been a huge fan of the stories written by Tantalus so far, but I have to say the alter ego did arouse my curiosity. I’m over the moon to have all my questions answered today and to be able to share those answers with all of you.

So, without further ado:

1.   Okay, so I suppose the first question has to be… why did you feel there was a need to create an alter ago?

The simple answer is, I had ideas for books that I didn’t think readers of K.C. Wells’ books would be happy with. Take the Collars & Cuffs series as an example. The whole series is centered on the theme of Love. Yes, it’s a BDSM series, but the scenes are not hardcore, the couples are committed… and yes, there’s a lot of romance and lots of HEA’s. Some friends of mine have suggested that my books are… ‘fluffy’.

And then there’s Leather & Kink…

This is a series I’ve wanted to write for a long time. The idea came to me after reading Mr. Benson by John Preston. I wanted to write a BDSM book that was grittier, rawer, showing relationships that some readers wouldn’t be happy about. A book that got down and dirty, I suppose you could say.  And definitely NOT fluffy.

So… I created Tantalus for that purpose. Since then, I’ve had ideas for a lot more stories, some of them breaking taboos.

2.   At first you didn’t tell anyone you were Tantalus. Why not?

At the time, there was a plethora of authors coming out with ‘Hey, guess what? I’m not who you think I am’ statements. So I kept quiet. It wasn’t until I met with a bunch of MM authors that I broached the idea of ‘coming out’ as Tantalus. They all thought it would go down well. So in January, I ‘fessed up.

LOL. I’ve seen some reviews expressing the opinion that they hadn’t known K.C. Wells could be so dirty…. [blushes]

3.   I was going to ask about that… What has Tantalus written so far?

I started with a short erotic story, Summer Heat, about two neighbors who made a bet – and what happened when Pete lost to Damon. It was about 5.5K words, and absolutely nothing like my usual writing. This was Erotica.

As I got to the end, I realized it couldn’t stop there. So then came After, where Pete turns the tables on Damon.

When I wrote Summer Heat, I had no idea where it was going. You didn’t get to learn anything about Pete and Damon, apart from the fact that Pete is obviously submissive, and Damon is definitely Dominant. But in After, there was a hint about Damon’s past, and we learn that he was hurt by someone.

Consequences, the third instalment in the Damon & Pete: Playing with Fire series – yep, it’s now a series – was nothing like the first two. More about the characters, and an unexpected turn…

I’m writing the fourth instalment, Limits, at the moment.

4.   And what will Tantalus be writing in the future?

Well, the first book in the Leather & Kink series is already planned – Learning the Notes. There will be others, including one set in the late seventies, early eighties…

There’s a taboo story waiting patiently to be written, too.

Thank you for stopping by today. I’m guessing it’s fair to say that Tantalus is well and truly out of the closet now.

About the books:

Summer Heat (Damon & Pete: Playing with Fire #1)

Pete and his hunky bear of a neighbour, Damon, are always competing about something. So when Damon makes a bet on the outcome of their next poker game, Pete is up for it, even if the terms are a little…unusual.

If Damon wins, he gets to do Whatever. He. Wants.

Only thing is, Pete has no idea that Damon has a dark side…

Buy link:       Amazon

Review Link:  Summer Heat

After (Damon & Pete: Playing with Fire #2)

Damon hasn't had many curveballs thrown his way, and when life manages this, he can usually dodge them.

But not this one.

This one bites him - right in the rear end.

Someone should have warned him.

Payback is a bitch.

WARNING: hot man-on-man action and dubious consent

Buy link:       Amazon

Review link:  After

Consequences (Damon & Pete: Playing with Fire #3)

Pete knew there'd be payback and he's ready to take his punishment. But what Damon comes up with is so not what he expected...

Buy link:       Amazon

Review link:  Consequences

And…In the Tantalus pipeline:

Limits (Damon & Pete: Playing with Fire #4)

Pete finally gets to go to the Folsom Street Fair.

It's a weekend for exploring his limits.

But ultimately it's Damon's limits that are challenged....

Learning the Notes

Steven Torland is about to reach his fiftieth birthday, and to celebrate the occasion, his publicist decides it’s time someone wrote a biography of the famous composer and musician. When writer Kyle Mann is approached with the idea, he’s flattered and he leaps at the chance. It will be his first biography. The idea of spending six months getting to know Steven and researching his history excites him, but there is the added frisson that Steven is sexy as hell. Kyle has always had a thing for older men, and it’s no secret that Steven is gay. In his heart Kyle knows it’s just a fantasy, but he can still dream, right?

It doesn’t take Steven long to realize he wants Kyle in his bed, and Steven usually gets what he wants. But Kyle proves to be more than a convenient fuck. There’s something about him that leads Steven to think maybe it’s time to let Kyle see the real Steven Torland, the one who frequents San Francisco’s leather bars. Steven aims to take things nice and slow, because he doesn’t want this one to get away. He wants its all – a lover in his life and a boy in his bed – and he wants to see just how far he can push Kyle, and what Kyle is prepared to do to please him.

Kyle has no idea how his life is about to change….

By Quarry Lake by Josephine Myles – Release Blitz

Author: Josephine Myles

Release Date: July 26 2016

Smashwords   ARe    Amazon         Amazon UK

Length: 12,000 words

Cover Artist: Lou Harper

Blurb: 

Still waters run deep...

Tommy's been away from his home in rural Somerset for three years. Long enough to sort out who he is, and to get over the feelings of confusion and shame that blighted his lifelong friendship with farmer's boy Rob. He's out and proud, now--and he's coming home to claim back what he lost.

Rob's the one who stayed behind, working on the farm with little time for a social life. With Tommy coming back into his world, he could have a lot to gain--and everything to lose.

He's going to have to take a leap of faith. Straight into the ice cold waters of Quarry Lake.

This story was originally published in 2013 as part of the Summer Lovin' anthology.

Excerpt:

Tommy shivered and gasped. Quarry Lake was nothing like the public baths in Croydon. Bloody hell, how had Tommy forgotten how the cold water caressed every inch of his body, energising him every bit as much as it chilled? You could dive without goggles, no chlorine to burn your eyes. And when you surfaced, you swam up towards the clear sky, swallows flitting high above in their graceful dance.

And more to the point, there was Rob, just over there and definitely due a dunking. Fuck, but he looked good. Face and forearms deeply tanned, damp hair stuck to his forehead. Green eyes echoing the water they were swimming in. Rob smiled, but it wasn’t the carefree grin Tommy was craving. The one he remembered. There was something guarded about Rob’s expression. Something Tommy could only blame himself for.

Screw it, he didn’t know how to make this right. Plan A had been to just blurt it all out. Find a natural place to introduce it into the conversation. Oh, and by the way, I am gay after all. And totally single since I broke up with my boyfriend. Wanna crawl up onto those rocks and fuck each other’s brains out?

Tommy snorted. Like there was any way he could say any of that with Rob looking at him like he was little better than a stranger. And besides, that would make it all sound so impersonal. Like Rob was just a convenient body, rather than someone he’d yearned for all these years.

Plan B it was, then. Tommy dived down under the water, striking out for the deeps before flipping round to peer up for a shark’s vision of his prey. There he was, legs kicking powerfully . Rob looked almost too solid to swim. Like he was carved out of marble and should sink to the bottom, but there he was, flesh and blood.

Don’t think too hard about flesh and blood.

Tommy stopped fighting the water and let himself rise, aiming for Rob’s legs. He caught one, wrapped his hands around a pillar of muscle and hairy, goosebumped skin. He yanked down, not far. Just enough to dunk Rob’s head under the water for a second.

Letting go was tough when every part of him screamed to hold on. But that wouldn’t be much of a game, so he kicked away and surfaced a few feet away, just out of reach.

“Bastard!” Rob exclaimed, but this time when he looked Tommy’s way his grin was the one he remembered, wide and sunny. “You’re in for it now.”

“Can’t catch me. I’ve been training.” Tommy snatched a breath and ducked under the water again.

And this time Rob followed.

Tommy let himself be caught. Rob’s strong hands closed around his calf. It was almost perfect—if he’d only move his grip higher. Tommy made a token effort at getting away, but he didn’t want to. Not when those calloused hands were holding him like that, making him imagine other places they could grasp.

Good thing the water was so bloody freezing.

My thoughts:

By Quarry Lake is a charming short story about two men getting a second chance at love and grabbing it.

When Tommy returns to his rural home after three years he longs to reconnect with Rob, who’s been his friend for as long as he can remember. Well, until Tommy hit him, three years ago, after Rob kissed him. Back then Tommy wasn’t sure what he felt or wanted and scared of his feelings. These days Tommy is out and proud and ready to reclaim what he so carelessly tossed aside all those years ago.

Rob, while having always known he was gay, is still deep in the closet and all but resigned to living his life there. He can’t imagine either his father or the local community accepting him as a gay man, and since the one man he’s always loved has disappeared from his life anyway, there’s no point in revealing his big secret.

When the two men meet again it is at Quarry Lake, the place where they spent long hours together while growing up, before it all went haywire. And it doesn’t take long before both of them know, without a doubt, that the attraction they felt for each other in the past is alive and well. The only question is, can Rob forgive Tommy for his behaviour?

Like I said, this is charming story. Virtually angst free this is the sweet tale of two men who are meant to be together finding each other again. If I have one reservation it is that Rob was very fast to forgive Tommy; I wouldn’t have minded if he’d been made to suffer at least a little bit. But, given that this is a short story which I knew before I started reading it, I can’t complain (too much) about the lack of angst. And the fact that the two men are both sweet and hot together makes up for most if not all of my need for more.

Very well written, easy to read and sure to leave a huge smile on your face, ‘By Quarry Lake’ was the perfect story to read outside in the sunshine on a lazy Sunday afternoon. It almost made me want to jump into my own lake, and if it had been a little bit warmer today, I probably would have. J

Author Bio:

English through and through, Josephine Myles is addicted to tea and busy cultivating a reputation for eccentricity. She writes gay erotica and romance, but finds the erotica keeps cuddling up to the romance, and the romance keeps corrupting the erotica. Jo blames her rebellious muse but he never listens to her anyway, no matter how much she threatens him with a big stick. She’s beginning to suspect he enjoys it.

Jo’s novel Stuff won the 2014 Rainbow Award for Best Bisexual Romance, and her novella Merry Gentlemen won the 2014 Rainbow Award for Best Gay Romantic Comedy. She writes for publishers but has also been known to edit anthologies and self-publish on occasion, although she prefers to leave the “boring bits” of the ebook creation process to someone else. She loves to be busy, and is currently having fun trying to work out how she is going to fit in her love of writing, dressmaking and attending cabaret shows in fabulous clothing around the demands of a preteen with special needs and an incessantly curious toddler.

Website and blog: http://josephinemyles.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/josephine.myles.author

Twitter: @JosephineMyles

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Notes & Roses by Rozenn Scott

246 Pages:

Stanford Creek #1

E-book

The blurb:

Cody is running from the ghosts of his past. Will Megan's love be enough for him to make a stand?

With his stalker behind bars, former boy band singer CJ Taylor is starting a new life. He’s bought a house in a small Vermont town, and taken back the name he was born with. Two years have passed since he was last in the public eye and as Cody Brennan, he’s finally feeling safe. Desperate to find some peace, all he wants is to connect to the music in his head, write new lyrics and forget the tragedy in his past.

What he doesn’t count on is meeting Megan. From her amber eyes to her tempting smile, she is everything he thought he could do without, the very thing he promised himself to avoid. But he’s thrown into her family and her life, and suddenly he’s found a place he wants to stay.

Megan Campbell is horrified when a stranger, covered in blood, collapses in her shop. When that same stranger, wild and angry, abruptly becomes someone very different, it’s not her safety she is worrying about, it’s her heart.

Megan’s first instinct is to tame the powerful attraction she has to this stranger, but very soon desire becomes something more. Between them can they find the words to make things right? And can they stay safe long enough to fall in love?

My thoughts:

It has been some time since I last read an M/F romance. Not so much because I’ve suddenly fallen out of love with the genre, but more because I was trying to catch up with the new to me M/M genre. Notes and Roses was a wonderful book to take me back to my (reading) roots.

The story hooked from the start when a bleeding, bearded man stumbles in the shop run by Megan Campbell and her cousin Rachel, and collapses. Despite his dishevelled appearance and the potential thread he might be, Megan can’t deny she’s interested in the stranger. When he returns to the shop, all cleaned up, to apologize that interest turns into attraction.

Cody’s reaction to Megan is pretty much the same; he can’t get her out of his head. But he’s nowhere near ready to share all his ghosts and demons with somebody else, no matter how he might feel about her.

Despite Megan’s very protective brothers and extended family having their doubts about Cody and Cody himself being afraid that getting close to Megan will mean his secrets will be revealed, the two of them can’t fight the attraction between them and very quickly grow very close. And, as Cody’s past infringes on his present, danger lurks, from all sides.

In the past I’ve often been frustrated with M/F romances because, with a few exceptions, they seemed to present me with either helpless, fragile leading ladies or their exact opposite, women so independent they end up acting stupidly just to prove they don’t need anyone. Megan in this book, thankfully, fell into neither of those categories. She was the kind of leading lady I do like to read about; independent, with a mind of her own and yet smart enough to know that she can’t always do everything herself. She may resent the way her brothers are over protective when it comes to her, she is not ashamed to ask for their help when she needs it. It made her both relatable and recognisable and I found myself rooting for her right from the start.

The same balance was present when it came to Cody. He hasn’t begun to come to terms with everything that has happened to him in the past, and at times appears to be afraid of his own shadow. But when push comes to shove he is brave enough to be honest and selfless enough to think of Megan first.

I enjoyed this book. It had the right combination of romance and suspense—even if I did think Megan was a bit too naïve when it came to the man who had been bothering her. The attraction between Megan and Cody was palatable from the start and the intimate scenes between them were sexy without being overly descriptive. Finally I have to say that the title of this book was a stroke of genius on the author's part. If it's the job of a title to cover the contents of the book, Notes & Roses worked on every level. 

Long story short: this was a delightful and gripping read and I’m looking forward to the next book in this series.

Buy Links:

Amazon         Amazon UK             ARe