Tag Archives: Rating: 3.5

To Whom It May Concern by A.M. Johnson

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Title: ⟫ To Whom It May Concern: A For Him Novella 

Author: ⟫ A.M. Johnson 
Blurb: ⟫ To whom it may concern,

I can’t be sure what you’re into, that being said, if you like sexy and sweet romance with a whole lot of quirk, keep reading… 

Ever since Clay Saxon’s parents passed away a year ago, he’s been stuck in a rut, running their business, and suffering from the worst writer’s block ever. 
But when Syrus Albie, aka yellow sweater guy, (you’ll see) walks into The End Book Store, Clay’s mundane little world turns to sunshine. 
I don’t want to ruin it, but I can definitely say, when an introverted as hell narrator finally meets his favorite author and crush, all of his usual protocols go up in flames. 
Set in the For Him World, this stand-alone is the perfect introduction or addition to this steamy MM collection. 
Sincerely yours, 
A.M. JOHNSON 
Review: ⟫ I’ll preface this by saying that I haven’t read any of the ‘For Him’ verse that is mentioned in the blurb so went into this blind. I don’t think it made any real difference – I may have missed out on cameos that are from the other books, but it didn’t affect my enjoyment. 
This was a very sweet, soft, gentle read, with a socially awkward Syrus moving from a slight case of hero worship to love with a genuinely nice guy in Clay. There was no real angst in this book, just two guys meeting each other when they needed someone in their world and finding that they meshed really well. 
The communication between the two of them was a very strong point for me – perhaps because I recently read a book where I was almost screaming at the two main characters to just talk to each other – and Clay and Syrus made a lovely couple.

I don’t know if I’ll look into the rest of the series, but this was a nice interlude. 

3.5/5 from me.

I received an ARC from Gay Romance Reviews.

His Boy To Cuddle by Morticia Knight (Naughty or Nice Season 2)

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Title: ⟫ His Boy To Cuddle (Naughty or Nice Season 2) 

Author: ⟫ Morticia Knight 
Blurb: ⟫ Dear Santa, 
I just recently moved to Boston and would love to find a sweet, pretty boy to spend the holidays with. I’m a fit, thirty-eight-year-old Daddy who loves to cuddle, pamper and kiss up a storm. Spankings and punishments? Not so much. With that in mind, I’d prefer a nice boy. 
Naughty in bed? That’s a different story! I’m all about heating up the sheets and keeping my boy satisfied. 
All Littles are welcome, any age, but if he likes dolls and frilly things—even better. I love me a femme boy who knows what he wants. 
I need to be up-front, though, Santa. This is a no strings attached arrangement for the week leading up to Christmas only. A long-term relationship isn’t what I’m searching for right now and be sure to let any potential boys know I’m not a wealthy dude. 
I can’t shower him with lots of presents but I can sure shower him with tons of affection! 
Thanks, big guy. I hope you can fulfil my wish. 
DareDaddy 
His Boy to Cuddle is part of the Naughty or Nice Season Two multi-author series. Each book can be read as a stand-alone, but there are so many Daddies looking for some holiday magic to bring them their perfect boys, why not grab them all? 
From this novella, you can expect a super shy boy who prefers nighties over PJs, a spectacular vintage Barbie collection, first times, and a muscular, bearded Daddy who can’t keep his hands off the prettiest boy he’s ever seen. 
Review: ⟫ I’ve never read a femme Little story before and that was what initially attracted me to reading this. An added benefit was that the Daddy in the story wasn’t wealthy – most of the other books I’ve read, money hasn’t been a problem which I think can sometimes skew the dynamic. 
This story was very sweet with excellent communication between Jaxon and Tracy. Although there were a few other characters, the focus was predominantly on the new couple, with Tracy learning about what he needed as a Little and Jaxon realising that he wanted more from the arrangement than he had initially thought. 
Lots of festive romance, playing with dolls and a little bit of sex.

A solid 3.5/5 and I received an ARC from Gay Romance Reviews.

Break Me Daddy by Skyler Snow

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Title: ⟫ Break Me Daddy 

Author: ⟫ Skyler Snow 
Blurb: ⟫ I did something stupid. 

Something needlessly, hopelessly, stupid and now my past is catching up with me. 

I knew when I saw that cash I should have left it alone, but I needed it. And doesn’t the world owe me a little bit of luck? A little reprieve from the constant BS? 
 
Sorry. I can’t help but to rant about my situation because the truth is that I am royally screwed. You see, I stole money from the mob. 
One stupid decision made in the heat of the moment and now I’m running for my life. A friend gave me enough money to hide… 
But he’s coming for me. 

Amadeo wants to possess everything that I am and punish me for what I’ve done. Maybe I could take that if he wasn’t so intent on making me call him ‘Daddy’. 

And maybe I wouldn’t care about that title, if it didn’t make me tingly all over. But I despise him and I always will. No matter what my stupid body…and heart…has to say. 
Break me Daddy is a full-length MM Daddy romance with morally gray characters, a possessive and demanding Daddy, a willful and bratty boy, a load of bloody violence and a well deserved HEA. 

Review: ⟫ I seem to have come across a lot of stories lately that are Mafia based, but I was very interested in the whole Mafia Daddy thing so I went with it. 

For a start, this story does include some bloody violence, unlike other ‘dark’ books that I’ve read recently. And it was interesting how Six reacted to the violence – he didn’t look at Amadeo through rose-tinted glasses, he knew that he was a gangster. 
And Amadeo did a few things throughout the book that made me wince more than once – I mean, his reaction to Angelo upsetting Six made my jaw drop! 
 The sex was pretty hot, and the storyline was relatively engaging. I think the main issue I had was that I found I didn’t really care for either of the main characters – they didn’t grab me in any way, and I kinda lost motivation for reading when I realised that I didn’t like them. 
I actually found Six to be really irritating a lot of the time, and although he admits that he often does things without thinking them through, I wanted to smack him a couple of times for his unthinking actions. 
The story was well written and had an interesting plot-line apart from the relationship between the two leads. I really enjoyed reading the interactions of Amadeo and his siblings, and thought that was very realistically conveyed. It was all in all an enjoyable read. 
I received an arc from GRR.

To Not Date My Best Friend by Gianni Holmes (The Simple Rules #2)

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Title: ⟫ To Not Date My Best Friend (The Simple Rules #2) 

Author: ⟫ Gianni Holmes 
Blurb: ⟫ What do you do when you meet the man of your dreams, but you’re already engaged? You become best friends and hope for the best. 
BAZ 
It was a meet-cute that should have come with a happy ending. I was hardly at my best when I caught Andy snapping photos of me topless in the name of street photography. I fired angry words at him. In exchange, he gave me his jacket to keep me warm. 
Thus began our friendship and an unrequited crush on a man who was about to get married. 
ANDY 

After a photography assignment in the Middle East left me scarred, I have no choice but to face the many issues in my life—my marriage is over, my wife has moved on, and I may never hold another camera between my hands. 

But there’s no hurdle I can’t get over once I have my best friend, Baz, in my life. When he tries to transition from a stylist to a journalist at the magazine where he works, he enlists my help in writing a column. 
How can I prove to him that moving from best friends to lovers makes sense when he’s determined to prove the opposite? 
To Not Date My Best Friend is a bi-awakening romance between a plus-sized stylist who’s claimed his place in the fashion world and a bi-curious photographer who happens to be his best friend. 
This book can be read as a stand-alone and has mild angst in some parts. 

Review: ⟫ I should preface this to say that I think this is more about me than the book. 
I wanted to like this story, I really did. I thought the premise was excellent and I loved the idea of the two of them dating whilst Baz was trying to confirm that it couldn’t work whilst Andy wanted to prove that it could. 
But that wasn’t what the story was. 
I wanted to learn more about what Andy went through that made him decide he needed to face his issues; the whole friends-to-lovers thing happened in a flash with what seemed like very little thought about the consequences if things didn’t work out; and I can’t fully explain it, but it felt like it held little substance. 
I didn’t like the cheating thing with the wife and thought it was unnecessary to the story, and perhaps that affected my perception? I don’t know, this just didn’t work for me. 
It was very well written, descriptive and interesting in parts, but somehow didn’t strike a chord for me. 
3.5/5.

I received an ARC from GRR.

If You Want Me Close by Skye Kilaen

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Title: ⟫ If You Want Me Close 

Author: ⟫ Skye Kilaen 
Blurb: ⟫ Falling in love with your best friend is wonderful… until tragedy means fighting for the romance and the friendship. 
 Bisexual event coordinator Simon Novotny thrives on connection. He cherishes his large, queer-friendly family and his friends—especially his cute, brilliant work bestie, gay IT geek Ziah Holdaway.

It’s taken forever for Simon to to coax Ziah out of his shell. 

Time and again people have let him down, especially those who should have loved him unconditionally. But Simon would do anything for Ziah: text him jokes when he’s down, bring him home-made lunches, change his tire in the rain. Heck, if Ziah needs a kidney, Simon’s got two. 
Minor crush? Maybe, but Simon’s not a make-the-first-move kind of guy. 
So when an unplanned hookup with Ziah proves their chemistry is off the charts, it also shakes Simon to his core. Because for Ziah, it’s not casual, it’s love.

Before Simon can fully process his feelings, a life-altering tragedy upends Ziah’s world. Simon throws himself into helping and also rallies his family. 

But for Ziah, family means rejection, and Simon’s uber-helpful clan sets off major alarm bells.

Can they find a middle path through the storm, or will this crisis cost them both their romance and their friendship? 

A high-heat contemporary M/M romance novel with a guaranteed HEA. 
Tropes: friends to lovers, hurt-comfort, grief, nerds in love, bisexual disaster, single parenting. 
Detailed content warnings will be available in the book’s front matter and on the author’s website. 
Review: ⟫ This was a well-written story, with careful and considerate descriptions of anxiety and depression, as well as one of the main characters dealing with feelings of rejection from family due to their sexual orientation. 
The characters were well defined, clearly distinguishable, with very human reactions to the situations they found themselves. The background characters were also well written, with issues of their own that didn’t overwhelm the main story but made them defined as more than just ciphers for the main characters to play off of. 
Which is why I’m really confused as to why I just didn’t like the story. I didn’t like Ziah at all – I sympathised with his plight but didn’t like the way he handled things at all. 
I found Simon annoying and slightly wishy-washy, and some of the background characters struck me as far more interesting.

I didn’t feel the connection between Ziah and Simon and found their sex scenes to be perfunctory and lacking in real heat. 

Perhaps it was just the frame of mind I was in when I was reading the story? I felt a distant sympathy for both men, but apart from that I didn’t really engage at all, which is a shame as the subject matter, the struggles they were both experiencing and their story was a very good one. 
3.5/5 from me. I received an ARC from GRR.

North's Pole by Leta Blake (Camp Bay Christmas Story)

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Title:
⟫ North’s Pole

Author:
⟫ Leta Blake

Rating:
⟫ 3.5/5

Blurb:
⟫
Located
on the shores of Lake Pend Oreille in beautiful Northern Idaho, Camp
Bay Chalet is a discrete and cosy B&B, popular with both locals
and minor celebrities for its fabulous holiday weekends.

The
pic seen around the world….

The
son of Hollywood royalty, North Astor-Ford has lived his entire life
in the public’s eye. He knows better than anyone that someone is
always watching.

So
when one not-so-innocent picture meant for a hook-up accidentally
ends up cross-posted across all his
social media, North is left humiliated and scared. With no one to
turn to, he flees to Camp Bay Chalet to be close to the one person he
used to count on to protect him from the world.

Liam’s
life has been in a holding pattern since the moment North fired him
three years ago, even if it was for the best. A romance between a
bodyguard and his client would’ve caused exactly the sort of
scandal Liam was hired to prevent.

Now
that North is back in his orbit, Liam’s going to do what he does
best, protect North from the world. And maybe, just maybe, the charm
of a Camp Bay Chalet Christmas will be enough to both heal North and
bring about the romance they’ve both always wanted.

North’s
Pole takes
place in the Camp
Bay shared
universe, but can be read as a stand-alone. Look for more of the Camp
Bay universe
in Stolen
Christmas by
Marie Sexton.

Review:
⟫ Despite the raunchiness of the initial subject matter,
this was a very sweet, quite romantic story with some sexy times
thrown in. North was a really sweet guy – slightly naive and
perhaps even gullible considering his upbringing, and not the
brightest bulb in the box. His humiliation and anguish at the
accidental pic that went around the world was palpable and actually
made me think about real-life celebrities and wonder how they cope
when sex tapes, etc. get released.

Liam
was the official white knight – riding to the rescue and taking
care of North the way he always did in the past. I thought it was
really interesting the circumstances behind him getting fired –
both he and North actually handled that with maturity and quite a lot
of dignity.

Camp
Bay sounds absolutely lovely, especially around Christmas time and
this was all-in-all, a lovely Christmas read. The ages of the MCs
bothered me a bit – they both seemed so long to be riding into the
sunset, but the epilogue definitely helped there – and I quite
enjoyed the read. I haven’t read any other books set in the Camp
Bay verse but I will keep a look out.

I
received an ARC from GRR. 

Three by Helen Juliet

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Title: ⟫ Three

Author: ⟫ Helen Juliet

Blurb: ⟫ All good things come in threes…

When three shy best friends sign up to a dating app to finally get some by the end of the year, they don’t expect to all fall for the same gorgeous, slightly scary-looking older man. The only solution? Let him choose who he wants to bed. Except he doesn’t…

Jacob didn’t become a billionaire before hitting thirty-five by making compromises. What he wants, he gets. So why should he choose between these adorable, delectable morsels when he can devour all three of them? Instead, he tells them to decide on an order, and then he’ll spoil each of them one after the other in a way they’ll never forget.

Will one night each be enough, though? And can that really be all they need to fall in love?

Three is a super steamy, stand-alone MMMM gay romance novel featuring a Daddy wolf ready to huff and puff his way into three hearts, no matter what, and a guaranteed HEA with absolutely no cliffhanger.

Review: ⟫ This was fun to read!

Each of the three young men has a distinctive character/kink that they want to explore and what I really liked was that it wasn’t limited to the Daddy thing – they really cared about each other too. They were encouraged to explore that – with Daddy and alone – and I liked how their previous relationship was allowed to flourish and grow so that they weren’t completely dependent upon Daddy.

Wolff was an alpha character, but he was also allowed to display his own vulnerabilities and his assistant was a fabulous character who cracked me up. The sex was steamy and variable, and the Daddy scenes were very nicely handled with something for everyone!

I have read at least one other ‘retold fairy tale’ by Helen Juliet so I sort of knew what to expect, but I found this a diverting, entertaining read that I don’t hesitate to recommend.

I received an ARC from GRR.

Beck by JJ Harper (Bar 28 Book #4)

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Title: ⟫ Beck (Bar 28 Book 4)
Author: ⟫ JJ Harper
Blurb: ⟫ Finally, he’s found his perfect man. Will he be able to keep him?

Beck Thompson is out and proud. He has a job he loves and friends he considers his family. Okay, he doesn’t have a boyfriend, but chances are slim he’ll find the man who’ll accept all of him, his past and his tattoos. He’s happy. Sort of.

Until he sees the perfect man…with the same woman hanging on his arm every night. Damn.

Munro Sylvester has put every aspect of his life on hold to make his business a success. And he’s done it. But he’s never been true to himself.

One look at the gorgeous, colourful man changes everything. He knows he has to make the first move, but he may risk losing everything he’s worked so hard for.

Can Beck trust his heart that Munro is the one for him? Is Munro brave enough to come out and fight for their happily ever after?

Beck has a tattooed bartender who has never had any luck with love, a hard-working gym owner who’s never said “I’m gay” out loud, instant attraction, and well-meaning, meddling friends.

It is the fourth book in the BAR 28 series, a MM contemporary series. Each book can be read as a stand-alone, but you’ll enjoy them best by reading them in order. This series is based in the UK.

Blurb: ⟫ Obligatory admittance that I haven’t read any of the other Bar 28 books, and unfortunately I won’t be looking for them after reading Beck. The story had a lot of potential and I was looking forward to reading about this gorgeous sounding man finding his ‘person’. But I have to be honest and admit that I never really felt that Munro deserved Beck. The whole manner in which he handled the Lucie situation annoyed the heck out of me – especially later in the book when she ‘tricked’ him into taking her shopping. Like, after everything she did, why would he let that happen?

I found it easy to see which other characters in the book had previous stories and I would imagine for anyone who has read all of the Bar 28 books that it would be nice to catch up with them all.

Beck was an interesting character and I wish I could have seen all of the tattoos and especially the exhibition. That sounded really epic and the author did a very good job describing the whole thing and helping you visualise it. But my feelings about the book were soured by Munro to the extent that there were a couple of times where I really wish that Beck had thrown away his phone number for good and walked past Munro when he waited for him outside the bar!

The writing was solid, most of the characters were engaging and entertaining – I just wish Beck had found a love worthy of him!

I received an ARC from GRR.

A Mage's Guide to Aussie Terrors by A.J Sherwood

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Title: ⟫ A Mage’s Guide to Aussie Terrors
Author: ⟫ A. J Sherwood
Blurb: ⟫ One ghost from the past.

Two unknown Australian monsters eating people.

Three men who won’t let either problem win.

Tags:
Familiars of choice, healing old wounds, Australian mythology, yes Nico and Wicky are in Australia, that goes about as well as anyone expects, giant amphibians of unusual size, even the MAD research department is stumped, Wicky may have summoned Godzilla, in his defence he was left unsupervised, conversations via air guitar, the next time they have to travel to a different continent Bel is drugging Nico first.

Review: ⟫ I don’t remember thinking that the first book was this silly. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed reading it – the banter was on point, the snark and jokes were brilliant but this time I almost felt like it took away from the story? Despite what they were facing eating people and the real possibility of death, there seemed to be a lot of jokes/banter and general silliness that felt a bit much.

Spencer came across like a complete and utter child, and in a way this dragged me out of the story. I get that he was the ‘villain’ (apart from the giant lizards), but would someone so completely and utterly incapable of acting in a mature fashion – at any point in time – have made it so far in his career? It just felt like in order to make him the bad guy, it was almost taken to parody levels.

Nico and Wicky together are always funny as heck – the names for their light sabers made me laugh for far too long. The monster fighting was also good, especially the way the team worked together – it almost made me wonder why they bothered having the marines along!

We see a bit more of the relationship between Garen, Nico and Bel which was lovely, and the sex scenes were satisfying. Whether it’s because I just wasn’t in a light enough mood or not, this didn’t quite hit the spot as well as other AJ books, but I will definitely be tuning in for Wicky’s book. And, yes, I may be on the Wicky/Grandpa bandwagon just a little!

Worth a read, but be prepared for shenanigans, silliness and a fair bit of sexiness! 3.5/5 rounded up to four from me. 

Rookie Mistake by Anna Zabo and LA Witt

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Title: ⟫ Rookie Mistake
Author: ⟫ Anna Zabo & LA Witt
Blurb: ⟫ Rookie forward Isaac Rivera is still finding his footing in the big leagues where he’s no longer the best player on the roster. It’s a whole new world, especially now that several of his hockey idols have become teammates. Friends, even.

There’s one who’s more than a hockey idol, though… and he might end up being more than a friend.

Julien Landry is a powerhouse on the ice. In eight years, he’s become one of the league’s top defensemen and the heartthrob everyone wants to bed. But fallout from a painful mistake as a rookie, followed by years of rough-and-tumble hookups, have him itching for something more.

When a connection sparks between him and Isaac, he discovers what he’s been missing: someone he can trust with his body and his heart. As long as Isaac and Julien keep the heat between them off the ice, what could go wrong?

But Julien’s past is never far behind him, and when it comes crashing in, he might lose everything—his career, his friends, and the first person he’s ever really loved.

CW: discussions of past abuse and sexual assault

Review: ⟫ There was a lot I liked about this book. The characters were solid and distinct, the wordplay between the characters was brilliant and the sex was off the charts hot. In the first half of the story, it flowed very well with the relationship between the two leads growing organically with palpable chemistry – Julian and Isaac were hot enough to melt the ice. I wasn’t expecting the BDSM aspect of things and thought the research that went into it on-page was awesome – in this day and age, where else are you really going to get your information in the first instance?

The Landry family reminded me very much of my family when I was younger – absolute chaos, noise and love. It was really lovely to see that on the page and it was extremely well done. And yes, there were times that finding a place to hide and just breathe was essential!

Nikki and Elias were amazing and it’s no surprise to me that they form the basis of book 2 because it was more than obvious that there was something between the two of them. So much so that a couple of times, my mouth dropped open with something Nikki did as it felt out of left field – like, how dare he! I imagine we’ll hear all about that behaviour in the next book.

I didn’t like Julian’s lack of communication over the darker issues. It was understandable initially – he had no way of knowing how deep his connection to Isaac was going to be. But the further into the story we got, it made little sense to me that he wouldn’t explain even just a little more about the situation in his past when it was so obviously messing up his present and potentially his future. The subject matter was handled competently and in a satisfying fashion, with good consideration to the current climate.

I was disappointed that the supporting characters didn’t push for Julian to get some therapy after the situation in his past – they were so supportive of him that it seemed strange that they wouldn’t encourage him to do that. That felt very much like it belonged in a book from years ago – therapy and counselling wasn’t so much the norm then.

It was a little hockey heavy, although it feels weird complaining that a hockey romance has too much hockey in it. I enjoyed it but got a little lost – possibly because it feels like ice hockey isn’t as big a deal over here in the UK? And the book was far too long. I understand the need to build tension, establish the relationship and show the effect of the past on the present, but it went on for too long and got repetitive in the end. It lost me a few times because I felt like it was going round and round in circles and I almost wanted to shout at the characters. I’m really torn on the rating because of that – the story was good, the sex was brilliant, the characters were engaging and well written but it felt like it was dragged on unnecessarily.

I’ve not read any Anna Zabo before and am going to try some more of their books this weekend. I would recommend reading it because it was enjoyable as long as you heed the trigger warnings and take into account how long the book is.