Puppy by R. Phoenix

Short Story

A Ripples in the Status Quo Story

Own / E-book

The blurb:

While other vampires glut themselves on the rewards of a world where humans are little more than food or entertainment, Liam has found himself bored with the new status quo. An attempt to alleviate his boredom brings him to Caleb, a man who’s willing to do what it takes to get out of the slums--even if it means becoming something less than human. 

This peek into the Ripples in the Status Quo world is a standalone out of the timeline of the series. 

My thoughts:

This was such a fun read. J

Yes, I did read Puppy and yes, I know the universe the author created here is anything but nice and sweet. And yet….

Let me go back a few steps and admit that I haven’t read any of the other, earlier, Ripples in the Status Quo books. But, since the author assures us Puppy can be read as a stand-alone, I did just that. And it's true. This book reads as a self-contained work. My point is that I have no idea how this story compares to the other books, so I can’t tell you whether Puppy is less dark than its predecessors or whether I’m just twisted that way. J

I thoroughly enjoyed myself reading this story. Sure, there are darker aspects to it. When Liam, a vampire, captures Caleb, a mere human, it is not as if Caleb has any choice when it comes to what happens next. And what happens next is deeply humiliating, occasionally painful and not nice at all. The thing is, Caleb likes humiliation. And while he’d prefer it if Liam wasn’t aware of that, there’s not a lot he can do to hide it when he’s constantly naked. Then again, just because Caleb enjoys humiliation doesn't mean he's going to roll over and play dead, and he's not inclined to hide his deviance either. He's a snarky little bugger and I liked him. 

There’s not a whole lot else I want to say about the story itself. Read it, allow it to surprise you, and enjoy it. And, if you think I’m mad for calling it a fun read, please come and let me know.

What I will say is that this book was a pleasure to read. Not only did I thoroughly enjoy the story, it was also very well written. Despite this being a short story I got a good feel for who the characters were and how they operated. I also wouldn’t mind spending more time with them and getting to know them even better, so I’m delighted the book concludes with the words: ‘The end (…for now)’.

Further reading:

From light to grey to dark, follow those who test and defy the status quo's subjugation of humans. In a world where the supernatural reign supreme, only love can set off the ripples that could change this depraved world for the better. But will the cost be too high? 

'Bought,' 'Ravel,' and 'Recoil' feature different characters whose lives begin to come together in 'Owned' and 'Temper.' 

Series: 
1. Bought - Jace & Elias. 
2. Ravel - Ashton & Reese. 
3. Recoil - Khaz & Noah. 
4. Owned - Khaz & Noah, Jace & Elias. 
5. Temper - Ashton & Reese, Jace & Elias. 

Standalones: 
Puppy – Liam & Caleb

Taught to Love by T.J. Masters

52 Pages

Novella

Own / E-book

The blurb:

In an effort to help a boy who lost his mother, schoolteacher Rob Cooper offers to tutor him. He doesn’t expect to fall for Sam’s father, Ken Reid. Ken’s grief has led him to bury his needs and emotions in work, but he can’t deny the new feelings Rob awakens. Wanting to see his father happy again, Sam encourages a relationship, leading Rob and Ken to explore a seduction that might become true romance.

My thoughts:

After I finished reading Diary Dates by this author yesterday, I was astonished to discover I had an unread book by T.J. Masters on my Kindle. In the spirit of ‘there’s no time like the present’ I called the book up and started reading, only to find myself in for a surprise.

Taught to Love is a charming feel-good story and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Having said that, initially I had one or two moments when I had my doubts about what I was reading. But after the thought that maybe the story-line wasn’t the most realistic had crossed my mind twice I just let that expectation go. Because while it is unlikely that a romance or relationship would develop as described in this book, I can’t deny that the world would be a far nicer place if they did. So I read this book as a fantasy, the story of what love might look like if we were able to let go of preconceived ideas about ourselves and the world we live in, and suddenly it all made sense and I found myself reading with a huge smile on my face.

The blurb gives you the story as it is, from beginning to end. Don’t start this book expecting angst or soul searching, because you won’t find it. This is a gay-for-you story in which the formerly strictly heterosexual partner has no hang-ups at all about the fact he finds himself falling for a man. It is a May-to-December tale in which the age difference is never mentioned, and the book features a teenager who is not only okay with his father dating again, but also actively orchestrates the coming together of the two men. As I said, maybe not the most realistic of scenarios, but in a world turning ever darker because of all the realities we have to live with, it is wonderful to occasionally read a story in which all is bright, easy and angst free.

By the time I finished this novella I was happy. I’d enjoyed my time with Rob, Ken, and Sam and had absolutely no problem imagining them living a very happy future together. And that is, of course, exactly what a romance should do.

Diary Dates by T.J. Masters – A Release Day Review

Pages: 52

Release Date: July 23, 2016

Novella

Own / E-book

The blurb:

Postgraduate student Andrew Chin arrives in London not only to study, but to explore life away from his traditional family in Singapore. His adventure begins at the airport, where he finds the diary of a wealthy British businessman and endeavors to return it.

James Howard is twice Andrew’s age, and he’s not used to selfless youngsters. Despite a rocky first meeting, the two develop an unlikely friendship as James introduces Andrew to the city. James is looking forward to the festivities leading up to Christmas in London and maybe a celebration with Andrew. But will a nasty bout of the flu ruin their romantic holiday?

Not if Andrew has anything to say about it.

My thoughts:

I enjoyed this rather sweet tale very much. Having said that, I’m not entirely sure I would call it a romance in the strictest sense of the word. But, I’ll get back to that in a moment.

For someone who has a thing about stationary and can’t imagine a life without a paper diary, this book pressed all the right buttons. A leather-bound diary? I’d be all over that and would be heartbroken if I lost mine. Throw in a beautiful pen and I may have ended up drooling just a little bit J

But, while the diary certainly plays its part in getting the two men together, it is not what this novella is about. We see most of this story through Andrew Chin’s eyes, and Andrew is a wonderful and endearing character. Whether it is a result of his background and culture or just who he is—I suspect it is a combination of the two— Andrew is a selfless soul, thinking of others before even considering himself.

James is just as much a product of his background and life as Andrew is. Whereas doing good is automatic to Andrew, James, a successful businessman, isn’t used to people doing something for nothing. I never thought he was out to insult Andrew, and yet he did hurt the young man with his constant offers to ‘repay’ him for his generosity. I breathed a huge sigh of relief when James at last seemed to get ‘it’.

I loved that this was a story about two men discovering who the other is and creating a friendship long before it turned into a romance. In fact, the romance and intimacy between James and Andrew only take up a small part of this story. And for me that both worked and didn’t work. It was good because I didn’t need detailed descriptions of their sexy-times to feel how close they had grown. The relationship between these two men is about a lot more than ‘just’ physical attraction and I’m glad that was established long before they got intimate. On the other hand, I also felt the story ended just when it was about to really begin.

As I said before, I'm not sure I'd label this story a romance. If the definition of romance implies a happily ever after for the characters involved, this story falls outside that definition. I understand why the author decided to end the story where he did. After all, Andrew is only in town for a year, and continuing the story until the moment he has to go back home would, without a doubt, have meant ending it on a sad note. The way this story ends means do get a 'happy-for-now' when we leave James and Andrew again and I appreciated that. If I had to label this story I'd call it the tale of a 'moment in time', a snap shot of a few months in the lives of two men. But I can’t help feeling that James and Andrew had more to share with me, although that may well be the result of my over-active imagination. J

In short I’d have to say I enjoyed Diary Dates and the time I spend with Andrew and James. I also hope the author will revisit these characters at some point in the future because as it is, I’m somewhat worried about the rest of Andrew’s life.

Buy Links:

Dreamspinner          Amazon         Amazon UK

Consequences by Tantalus

Short Story

# 3 Damon & Pete, Playing With Fire

E-book

The blurb:

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...

My thoughts:

First things first. While I label Consequences a short story, calling this the third instalment in a serial would have been just as accurate. There are no two ways about it, if you are going to read Consequences, you’ll have to read Summer Heat and After first. Not that I think that would be a hardship, mind you. J

To say Consequences surprised me would be an understatement. This book takes the story in a direction neither Pete nor this reader expected. Then again, I’m not sure even Damon saw this coming when he set events in motion in the first book, Summer Heat.

I really don’t want to say too much about it, because the surprise I got was one of the things I really loved about this book. I’m always delighted when I think I know where a book will be taking me, only for the story to go in a different direction altogether. The first half of this instalment most definitely did that.

Of course there were also parts to this story that were exactly what I expected them to be. This is once again a very hot, sensual and sexy tale. Damon sure knows how to create explosive heat between himself and Pete, just as he is an expert at keeping both the reader and Pete guessing as to what he might be up to this time.

What I like best about the way this tale is unfolding is that despite it being an erotic tale, the two main characters are definitely taking shape, both on the page and in my imagination. They are by now far more than just two hot bodies coming together. Instalment by instalment we get to know Pete and Damon better and I have to say, I like what I’m seeing.

I’m overjoyed that the author has already started on the next chapter in Damon and Pete’s ongoing saga. I’ll impatiently wait until the moment I’ll be able to spend more time with these two sexy men.

Buy Links:

Amazon         Amazon UK

Blow Down (Plumber's Mate Series #4) by JL Merrow: Release Blitz with Review

Author: JL Merrow

Release date: July 12, 2016

Amazon

ARe

Samhain

ISBN: 9781619234611

Length: 249 pages

Series: The Plumber's Mate Mysteries

Pressure Head (Book #1)

Relief Valve (Book #2)

Heat Trap (Book #3)

Blurb: 

Death is what happens when you're making other plans.

The last thing newly engaged plumber Tom Paretski needs is to stumble over another dead body.  He's got enough on his mind already as the reality of his impending marriage sinks in. Not only is his family situation complicated, his heroism at a pub fire made him a local celebrity.  Now everyone and their uncle wants a piece of his psychic talents.  Hired to find a missing necklace, Tom and his fiance, private investigator Phil Morrison, wind up trying to unmask a killer - and there's no shortage of suspects, up to and including the local bishop himself.  As Tom and Phil try to uncover the truth, they find themselves pulled in all different directions by the conflicting pressures of their families and their own desires.  But the murderer they're up against is a ruthless schemer who won't hesitate to kill again.  If Tom and Phil aren't careful, their love - and all their plans for the future - could be blown down like a house of straw.

Warning: Contains a bishop of questionable Christian charity, a necklace of questionable taste, and a plumber of questionable nationality who may be running out of time.

My thoughts:

I’d completely forgotten how much I love reading mysteries. Well, good mysteries that is. English village style mysteries. Mysteries inhabited by CHARACTERS. And ‘Blow Down’ was the perfect book to remind me. I had a ball reading this story.

I have to make a confession first; I didn’t actually read the first three books in this series. Yes, I’m asking myself ‘why the hell not?’ too, but that doesn’t change the fact that I read this book without any knowledge as to what had happened previously. And it didn’t matter. Of course I can’t judge whether or not I would have enjoyed this book (even) more if I had read the three preceding titles, but I do know that I never felt lost in this book. Not once did I wonder what something or somebody was referring to, or whether I was missing something. The book provides enough background information for the uninitiated to be fully emerged in the story, without ever dumping said information on the reader.

Tom and Phil are fabulous characters. I want to be their mate and wouldn’t mind going for a pint with them—even if I’m not much of a beer drinker. I loved them as individuals and I loved them together. They’re gruff; more inclined to slag each other off than to be lovey-dovey. And like typical men, they’re disinclined to talk, leading to huge statements being made in the form of abrupt outbursts. All of which, of course, only served to make those moments when they do allow the mask to slip and their feelings to shine through, all the  more touching.

The mystery in this book was good. It is what I would consider to be a ‘typical’ English village mystery with a limited cast of all too likely suspects, most if not all of whom have something to hide—be it murder or something else. I’ve read many mysteries in my life and one of the reasons I started reading other genres is because I got too good at guessing the culprit. A mystery just isn’t as much fun when you know who ‘done’ it as soon as the character is introduced. I was delighted when the revelation of who the murderer was, surprised me and yet made perfect sense.

And then the humour... I can’t remember the last time I laughed as much or as loudly while reading a book. In fact, I laughed out loud so much my poor husband went from bemused to somewhat worried. But then I made him read the following passage and, well, he laughed:

“Rugby, now… Well, it’s just a bunch of big bastards getting up close and personal with each other, innit? Sort of like wrestling, only not faked, with intervals of some bloke built like an armoured car grabbing the ball and legging it, trying to make it to the other side of the pitch before fifteen other blokes, some of who’re built like Chieftain bloody tanks, throw themselves on top of him.”

Oh, and did I mention this is the most English of stories?

Long review short: I loved this book. An interesting and well plotted mystery, combined with great characters, a charming couple, and laugh out loud humour made what for me is pretty much a perfect read.

Author Bio: 

JL Merrow is that rare beast, and English person who refuses to drink tea.  She read Natural Sciences at Cambridge, where she learned many things, chief amongst which was that she never wanted to see the inside of a lab ever again. Her one regret is that she never mastered the ability of punting one-handed whilst holding a glass of champagne.

She writes across genres, with a preference for contemporary gay romance and and mysteries, and is frequently accused of humour. Her novel Slam! won the 2013 Rainbow Award for Best LGBT Romantic Comedy and her novella Muscling Through and novel Relief Valve were both EPIC Awards Finalists. 

JL Merrow is a member of the Romantic Novelists' Association, International Thriller Writers, Verulam Writers' Circle and the UK GLBTQ Fiction Meet organising team.  Find JL Merrow online at www.jlmerrow.com, on Twitter as @jlmerrow, and on Facebook at www.facebook.com/jl.merrow

Staged by Kim Fielding

Staged (Belonging #3) by Kim Fielding

Pages: 255

Copy received from Riptide Publishing through Netgalley

E-book / Paperback

The blurb:

Once the second-prize winner on My Slave’s Got Talent, Sky Blue has spent the past few years singing at a failing New York nightclub. While Sky has never had control over his fate, his life seems to take a turn for the worse when he’s torn from the familiar comfort of performing and sold to a rich and enigmatic man.

Morgan Wallace takes his newly purchased slave to San Francisco, his intentions unclear. On the one hand, he treats Sky with more kindness than Sky has ever known—treats him like a real person. On the other hand, he shares Sky at parties hosted by his sadistic new friends.

A confused slave is an endangered slave, and Sky isn’t even sure of his master’s real name. Is he Morgan Wallace, wealthy and cruel, or Mackenzie Webster, caring and compassionate? Caught between hope, fear, and an undeniably growing attachment, Sky struggles to untangle which parts are real and which are merely a performance. His future, his heart, and even his life may depend on it.

Reader discretion advised. This title contains the following sensitive themes:

dubious consent
explicit violence
non-consent

My thoughts:

For possibly the first time ever I’m not entirely sure whether or not this review contains (a)spoiler(s). Proceed with caution.

First things first. While this is the third book in a series it can easily be read as a stand-alone. In fact at no point while reading this story did I feel I was missing information or wished for more background on either the characters or the world the story is set in. While Staged certainly made me curious about those earlier books, I don’t think there’s any need to read them first…unless you want to of course J

Staged. *sigh* The story is told from Sky Blue’s perspective and I think Kim Fielding did an amazing job getting into the head space of a man who was born a slave, raised a slave and destined to always be a slave. His descriptions of his life were devastating. It wasn’t just the fact that he was treated without any consideration, at best, and with cruel disregard at worst, although that was heartbreaking enough. What really got to me was that he basically lived a life without any possibility of it ever getting better. It wasn’t so much that he lived without hope, because he still wished for an owner who wouldn’t be cruel, who wouldn’t hurt or mistreat him, but as hopes go, that is scraping the barrel. What really got to me was his resignation and the fact that it made perfect sense. When being a slave is all you’ve ever known, when you’ve been told so often that you are less, that you don’t feel like normal—free—people do, that you almost believe it, resignation is probably the only way to survive.

Given that context it makes perfect sense for Sky to be utterly confused when his new Master, Morgan Wallace (or is it Mackenzie Webster?) treats him with kindness, looks after him, buys him nice clothes, and cooks him great food. Sky has never encountered this before. Nobody has ever cared about his comfort or his feelings, and he has no idea how to deal with someone who appears to do just that. Especially when that same person is also the man who hands him over to strangers to be hurt and abused in the most horrific ways, only to tenderly nurse him back to health afterwards.

Poor Sky is confused and doesn’t know what to think. For me the one issue I had with this book was that I didn’t share Sky’s confusion and fear about his new Master. As early as the third chapter Wallace has told Sky that he’s sorry about what he will have to put him through, but that he doesn’t have a choice. While Sky doesn’t have the frame of reference to either understand or fully believe that statement, for me as a reader, that was the moment the story lost some of its tension and became less dark, despite the fact that the horrendous abuse scenes were still to come.

This is of course a very personal opinion and others may well disagree with me, but I would have preferred it if I’d been kept guessing about Wallace, his motives, and his feelings towards Sky. While the fact that I, as the spectator, didn’t worry about Wallace as much as Sky did, was a wonderful way to illustrate how Sky’s slave mind worked, it did, for me, make the story less edgy than I thought it would be.

Other than that one point, this book was wonderful. The world it describes is ours, except that slavery is an almost worldwide routine, and that makes the story that much more credible and scary; it’s all too easy to believe in this version of the world. I completely and utterly fell for Sky and cheered him on for every step of his long, difficult, painful, and confusing journey, and rejoiced when he finally found his own power.

I’m impressed that the author managed to give me a clear idea about who Webster was and what he felt without ever getting into his head. We only see him from Sky’s perspective and yet we see Webster’s struggle clearer than Sky can. That is fabulous writing.

One word of warning. There are a few very ugly scenes in this book. While they are ‘only’ scenes and not the tone of the book, they will without a doubt shock some readers. Having said that, comparatively speaking, those dark scenes make up only a small part of the story. Most of this book tells the story of two men from different worlds, with no idea about the other person’s reality, learning about each other and in the process about themselves.

Overall this was a very good, very well written and totally engrossing book. I’m very glad I had four consecutive hours of almost uninterrupted reading time because I don’t think I would have been able to put the book down for whatever reason. While the book wasn’t quite as dark as I expected it to be, and I would have preferred to have been kept guessing about Webster a while longer, I still highly recommend this as a fabulous read.

Holiday Hottie by @JewelQuinlan Now available as an #audiobook! #contemporary romance

Holiday Hottie, The Cougar Journals book 3

Now available as an audiobook!

Available on Audible, Amazon and iTunes

Written by: Jewel Quinlan

Listening Time: 3hrs23mn

Narrated by: Stephanie Wyles

Listen to a Sample on Soundcloud:

https://soundcloud.com/jewel-quinlan/holiday-hottie

Blurb:

To get away from the pressures of work, Ava takes a last-minute cruise to the Greek islands by herself. But on the ship she runs into the coworker she despises the most, John Montgomery. Somehow he has a knack for driving her mad, and seeing him with his hot young date makes Ava feel even worse about herself. Meanwhile, sexy young steward Florian has been making passes at her, reminding her of how beautiful and alive she really is. Will Ava allow her loneliness to be chased away and desires fulfilled by a much younger man one more time?

About the Author:

Restless by nature, Jewel Quinlan is an avid traveler and has visited 16 countries so far. Lover of ice cream, beer and red wine she tries to stay fit when she’s not typing madly on her computer concocting another tale. In her spare time she likes to do yoga, hike, learn German and play with her spoiled Chihuahua; Penny. It is Penny’s mission in life to keep Jewel from the keyboard. But, with the help of dog-chew-making-companies, Jewel has been able to distract her canine companion and continues to get thousands of words on the page for your enjoyment.

For more information about Jewel Quinlan

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