Welcome to the Love Bytes Book of the Week Poll!

Here are the books which achieved a 4.5 or 5.0 review last week from our reviewers. 

As a reminder, the top two books from each week’s poll will roll into our Book of the Month poll at month’s end. Happy Voting!

Please scroll to the very bottom for the voting section.

POLL SCHEDULE:

This poll will remain open until at least 6PM, Amsterdam time next Friday. The actual closing time will vary depending on blog staff schedules…

Reviewed by Donna

TITLE: Shades

AUTHOR: Jaime Reese

PUBLISHER: Romandeavor

LENGTH: 344 Pages

RELEASE DATE: May 20, 2018

BLURB:

Life made him dangerous. Love made him lethal.

Killian Marks is a third-generation hitman. After hunting monsters for over twenty years, he lives under no illusions of happily ever afters and fairy tales. Until he meets a man who threatens to disarm him, by giving him hope for a future and showing him there’s more to life than just death.

For Nick, living in shadows is second nature. He’s all too familiar with the dark side of humanity and knows how delicate life can be. Each new day is a gift, even though it means doing it alone. But he’ll risk his survival for the one man who awakens something deep within and leaves him yearning for more.

Nick wants to solve the mystery behind the dark, brooding man, while Killian craves the life and light emanating from Nick. They soon discover they have more in common than either could have anticipated. With both their lives and hearts at stake, they must confront the ghost from Nick’s past intent on tying up a loose end. Only then will they truly find peace, and discover the shades of life in between.

———-

Shades is a stand-alone novel, gritty in parts and romantic in others. There’s an assassin with a moral code, a snarky sidekick, a hint of suspense, a bit of violence…and a few surprises. Behind it all, there’s a love story that will thaw a killer’s heart.

Reviewed by Becca

TITLE:  Whole: An Omegaverse Story

SERIES: Breaking Free #5

AUTHOR: A.M. Arthur

PUBLISHER: Briggs-King Books

LENGTH: 291 pages

RELEASE DATE: May 9, 2017

BLURB:

Two broken hearts…one perfect fit.
Alpha Morris Danvers likes his quiet life as a paralegal and as the uncle to his beta brother Morgan’s infant son Aeron. Raised by an abusive sire, Morris and Morgan have relied on each other for years, and Morris doesn’t trust himself to do right by an omega mate. When a tragic accident leaves Morris alone to raise a baby, he reaches out to his boss Ronin Cross for help—and gets more help than he ever imagined from Ronin’s mate and their friends. But Morris can’t take bereavement leave forever and Aeron needs a caregiver.
After surviving an abduction and months of torture, all omega Jaysan Rowe wanted was to give away the baby he never asked for and move on. But after months of acting out, Jaysan finally hits rock bottom on the one-year anniversary of his child’s birth. Desperate to get his act together, he meets with an alpha who needs full-time daycare for his infant nephew. But the instant Jaysan sets his sights on little Aeron he knows: Aeron is his biological child. Even Morris’s nose can tell the pair belongs to each other. His nose also tells him something even more shocking: Jaysan is his bondmate.
Both men feel the bond, but neither is ready to mate, period, so they come to a business arrangement. Jaysan wants a relationship with Aeron, and Morris needs a sitter. It should have been perfect, except for that pesky mating bond. A bond that draws them together, over and over, no matter how hard each man fights it. Jaysan swore long ago he’d never mate or let another alpha touch him during heat—except everything about Morris makes him feel safe. Wanted. Whole. But Morris deserves an unsoiled mate, not someone as dirty and used as Jaysan, and Jaysan will do anything to prove it to the stubborn alpha…even if it means giving up his son a second time.
NOTE: This is a non-shifter Omegaverse story with alpha/omega/beta dynamics, heats, knotting, and mpreg. In this world, omegas are second-class citizens with few civil rights and almost no protections under the law. Trigger warnings for physical, emotional, and sexual abuse. This series is best read in numerical order.

Reviewed by Jess

TITLE: My Lavender Boyfriend

AUTHOR: Marina Ford

PUBLISHER: Less Than Three Press

LENGTH: 308 pages

RELEASE DATE:  May 23, 2018

BLURB:

Simon Moussa is a formerly successful screenwriter who lives in London. He’s single and earns his living by teaching in film school, until an old friend, Charlie, visits one day with a strange proposition.

Nick Stone is a handsome, rich and famous actor, who hasn’t figured out how to be likeable in today’s social-networking culture. Because Simon is openly gay and has a pristine reputation, Charlie thinks that if the two were to pretend to be a couple, Nick would gain credibility, become likeable again, and Simon could use this to re-start his flailing writing career.

The plan is simple enough, and all they have to do is get along for a year—but even the simplest plan can go drastically awry when personalities clash and the past shows up at the worst time.

Reviewed by Kat

TITLE: Face the Music

SERIES: Replay #1

AUTHOR: K.M. Neuhold

PUBLISHER: Self Published

LENGTH: 294 pages

RELEASE DATE: May 20, 2018

BLURB:

Lincoln
I thought there was only one thing I needed to make me happy. I was so sure becoming a rock star would heal the dark corners inside me. But every time I walk onto the stage, with a roaring crowd screaming my name, all I can think about is the boy I left behind. All I want to do is rewind and make a different choice.
Jace
I thought I hated Lincoln when he ghosted me ten years ago and destroyed my heart. I thought I hated him when he wrote a chart-topping hit about our idyllic young love. But I’ve never hated him as much as I do right now, standing in front of me like he has every right to be in my world again. He’s not the rock god I thought he was…he’s still that same lost boy I used to love. Can I ever trust him with my heart again?

***Face the Music is the first book in the Replay series. Each book in the series will focus on a different band member getting a second chance at love. Each book can be read as a stand-alone. This book contains descriptions of self-harm, suicidal thoughts, and sexy times.

Reviewed by Caroline

TITLE: Psychopaths & Sinners

SERIES: Don’t… Book 5

AUTHOR: Jack L Pyke

PUBLISHER: Enspire Publishing

RELEASE DATE: May 22, 2018

BLURB:

“Because us? Psychopaths and sinners… we don’t need fixing, Gray.”

Three bodies, three mutilations, each one with something… unusual inserted into the wounds. The deaths are enough to leave Ash Thomas scrambling around to find someone to trust as the murders hit so close to home and heart.

For Gray Raoul, MI5 director of G-Branch, the deaths offer something else, a fall back into a familiar life where culling serial killers cater to his own darker mindset. But the farther Gray moves away from home, the more he realises serial killer games in the field are nothing compared to who he has locked up back at home. Sometimes walking the fine line between psychopaths and live-in lovers is a far darker game.

For Ash, that might just mean he’s on his own now, facing a killer who has a deadly fascination for pretty young men and dancing Holly Blue butterflies over their skin.

Reviewed by Becca

TITLE: The Diamond Dragon’s Manny Mate

SERIES: The Jeweled King’s Curse mpreg #2

AUTHOR: Kiki Burrelli

PUBLISHER: self-published

LENGTH: 162 pages

RELEASE DATE: April 15, 2018

BLURB:

A Robin Hood conman, a cursed King and a brutal spell…
Flynn Stegman doesn’t love his life as a thief, but his nephew’s expensive asthma medication isn’t going to buy itself. Besides, after this last job, he won’t have to work again. The payoff is huge, but the danger involved is life-threatening.
By impersonating another man, Flynn infiltrates the island of the recently discovered diamond dragons. He just needs to stay under the radar long enough to find the item he’s been hired to steal and to get out. Preferably before he’s found out and flung off the nearest cliff.
King Sebastian has spent the last five years in mourning. A horrible curse robbed him of his true love during childbirth and he can’t shake the grief long enough to run his country. Thankfully, his sister, the Guardian Princess Sorsha has taken control of the kingdom and keeps an eye on his daughter, but there is unrest, and a powerful old enemy is using that unrest to try to take the king’s power.
When Flynn accidentally saves the King’s daughter, his plan of staying out of sight goes horribly wrong. Five years old and full of more book smarts than should be possible in a kid her age, the little Princess has been left mostly on her own in the castle, until now. Flynn can now add, manny to a pint-sized Princess, to the list of things he’s endured while on a job.
Sebastian can’t manage to ignore his daughter’s new manny, he feels a pull toward the man that Sebastian thought he would never feel again. A dragon doesn’t get two mates, so then why does Sebastian’s inner beast long for the sly human? Whatever the reason, Sebastian finds that simply being near Flynn is bringing him out of his grief, making him whole again. So, when he discovers that Flynn may not be who he says he is—and may actually be working with his most dangerous enemy—he’s torn between protecting the man he loves or protecting his kingdom.
The Diamond Dragon’s Manny Mate is the second book in the Jeweled King Curse series. It may be read and fully enjoyed as a standalone. In this book, you will find excitement, magic, romance and love with a HEA while two men find their true fated mates

Reviewed by Annika

TITLE: Angel and Firebird 

AUTHOR: Nell Iris

PUBLISHER: JMS Books

RELEASE DATE: May 12, 2018

LENGTH: 21 pages

BLURB:

Five years ago, Phoenix lost his lover Gabriel, his angel, in a horrific hate crime. All he wanted was to follow him into death and he struggled a long time trying to get his life back together. All this time later he still hasn’t been able to put the past behind him and forget about the love of his life.

On the anniversary of Gabriel’s death—and 25th birthday—Phoenix’ apartment building catches fire. Will Phoenix do the reasonable thing, or will he rise from the ashes to reunite with his beloved angel?

Reviewed by Becca

TITLE: A Spartan Love

SERIES: Sparta Love #1, Apollo’s Men #2

AUTHOR: Kayla Jameth

PUBLISHER: Dreamspinner Press

LENGTH: 236 pages

RELEASE DATE: December 8, 2014

BLURB:

Spartan Love: Book One
The Epics of Apollo’s Men

Alone, Andreas toils on a remote farmstead for a Spartan overlord. When a kryptes enters his world, Andreas fears for his life. The dread warriors stalk and kill helots—like Andreas’ father—as part of their training.
Andreas sees only one way to save himself: he must tame the fearsome warrior.
But what began as self-preservation develops into attraction. Yearning for the company of someone other than his ferret, Ictis, Andreas decides to trust the Spartan warrior and risk the fate that claimed his father.
Born to rule by the sword, Theron sees the world as his and acts accordingly, taking everything Andreas offers and reaching for more. However, love between men in Sparta is considered shameful and requires either exile or suicide to redeem Sparta’s honor. Now, only the gods can save them from the terrible price Sparta extracts from men who desire other men.

Reviewed by Annika

TITLE: Whisper

AUTHOR: Tal Bauer

PUBLISHER: Self Published

RELEASE DATE: April 26, 2018

LENGTH: 951 pages

BLURB:

The truth is complicated.

On September 11th, 2001, Kris Caldera was a junior member of the CIA’s Alec Station, the unit dedicated to finding and stopping Osama Bin Laden.

They failed.

Ten days later, he was on the ground in Afghanistan with a Special Forces team, driven to avenge the ghosts that haunted him and the nation he’d let down. On the battlefield, he meets Special Forces Sergeant David Haddad. David – Arab American, Muslim, and gay – becomes the man Kris loves, the man he lives for, and the man he kills for, through the long years of the raging wars.

David Haddad thought he’d be an outsider his whole life. Too American for the Middle East, too Arab for America, and too gay to be Muslim. It took Kris to bring the parts of himself together, to make him the man he’d always wanted to be. But the War on Terror wreaks havoc on David’s soul, threatening to shatter the fragile peace he’s finally found with Kris.

When a botched mission rips David from Kris’s life, Kris’s world falls into ruin and ash. A shell of the man who once loved with the strength to shake both the CIA and the world, he marks time on the edges of his life. The days bleed together, meaningless after losing the love of his life.

After being captured, tortured to the edge of his life, and left for dead by his comrades, David doesn’t know how much of himself is left. He vanished one day in the tribal belt of Pakistan, and the man who walks out almost a decade later is someone new: Al Dakhil Al-Khorasani.

But strange rumblings are whispering through the CIA. Intelligence from multiple sources overseas points to something new. Something deadly, and moving to strike the United States. Intercepts say an army from Khorasan, the land of the dead where the Apocalypse of Islam will rise, is coming.

And, at the head of this army, a shadowy figure the US hasn’t seen before: Al Dakhil Al-Khorasani.

David is coming home.

Reviewed by Taylin

TITLE: Room For Recovery

SERIES: Hearts and Health #4

AUTHOR: DJ Jamison

PUBLISHER: Self-Published

LENGTH: 250 Pages

RELEASE DATE: February 26, 2018

BLURB:

Beau James isn’t out, but he’s not fooling anyone. When he’s cornered by two bullies, he’s rescued by none other than the broody Wade Ritter, who he’s crushed on from afar. Despite their family connection, Wade has resisted all of Beau’s attempts at friendship — until now. His protective streak gives Beau an opportunity to get past Wade’s prickly exterior.

Wade considers Beau to be a quasi-cousin. He’s been careful to keep Beau in that box because he is too tempting to a gay boy determined to remain in the closet after his coming out went all wrong. But when Wade sees bullies harassing Beau, he offers to help. Little does he know this small crack in the walls around his heart is the opening Beau needs to move in and change Wade’s life.

After years off the rails, Wade realizes there’s room for recovery. If he can face hard truths about his sexuality and love himself, he might be able to love Beau too.

Reviewed by Roberta

TITLE: Love of the Egoist: M/M Enemies to Lovers

SERIES: The Egoist #1

AUTHOR: Nero Seal

PUBLISHER: Self-Publish

LENGTH: 267 Pages

RELEASE DATE: May 20, 2018

BLURB:

“I wanted to play with you… punish you. But now, I want to ruin your world and turn it pitch black. Isolate you so you don’t have anything left except me.
And remember, it’s your own fault.”
* * *
Isolation. Loneliness. Endless silence stretching into eternity.
This is the personal living hell of police detective, Kuon Leiris.
His punishment for ruining the Black Duke’s deal.
But when nights come, it gets worse…
Cruelty. Care. Brutality. Affection.
Constant mind games where he can do nothing, but give in.
Yugo pours his every corrupt desire into his prey, testing the limits of their twisted relationship.
Do you dare enter a dark world where safe-words don’t exist?