Guest Review by Cinnamon

TITLE: Leaning into Forever

SERIES: Leaning into

AUTHOR: Lane Hayes

PUBLISHER: Self Published

LENGTH: 261 Pages

RELEASE DATE: June 26, 2018

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Geordie De La Rosa is a legend among wine lovers in Napa Valley. His ultra-fabulous style paired with a penchant for leading impromptu sing-a-longs has made him a star attraction at Conrad Winery. Co-owning a well-respected winery was never Geordie’s aspiration but he likes the niche he’s made for himself. He won’t deny that his job and his friends have helped ease his heartache and grief after the death of his longtime partner.

Levi Yeager excels at the art of reinventing himself. He’s been a minor league baseball player, a college coach and now a restaurant owner. The problem is he doesn’t know anything about the food business. And when his chef quits unexpectedly, he’s afraid his new venture is doomed. But Levi isn’t a quitter. It may be the only thing he has in common with the beautiful, sassy man from the neighboring winery who agrees to help get his new business up and running. Neither man counts on their fast friendship or the wild attraction they feel for each other. However, they know they won’t stand a chance until they let go of the past and lean into forever.

Reviewed by Becca

TITLE: Anail Dhragain: Dragon’s Breath

SERIES: The Pendhragains #1

AUTHOR: Stephan Knox

PUBLISHER: TPS Publishing

LENGTH: 758 pages

RELEASE DATE: March 31, 2018

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Serving as a Brittunculi Legionnaire in the very occupation he hates the most, Trystian has yet to labour through some of the hardest lessons of life.
Fourteen years of his youth have been conscripted by the deceitful Legatus Legionis Gallus through impossible choices forced upon him; that time is gone, but now, so are the Romans. Free after so long, Trystian’s only desire is to go home— to the family he fears has been destroyed, even after he’d remained dutifully under the regime, and to the one with whom he left his heart.
In a time when so few dare to pray to her any longer, he hopes his devotion to his Goddess is strong enough to wake her from the slumbers of abandonment, so that she may see him through his ultimate and most brutal path yet ahead. The one that will finally return him home. It is this journey, at the most dismal point in his life, that forces him to reconcile with his past, and make peace with the choices that had been made for him long ago.
It’d started when he’d been a young man, struggling with how to contain his discontent of the Roman occupation of Briton so as not to shame his father. Nevertheless, not even the receding Roman reign had come soon enough for Trystian. But back home in Penrith, Cumbria, the ominous Roman presence wasn’t the only thing that caused Trystian a troubled mind. As a young man coming of age, he found there were some things he didn’t have in common with other young men, and an encounter with a secret Welsh noble with exotic eastern features both terrified and excited Trystian. However, life for Trystian wasn’t just his own or simple enough for him to have the time he had wished for to explore. Such feelings, stirring within him— they remained untouched as he was tutored and conditioned to be something greater for their people and the family’s future.
After all the misfortune and misery of the past, Trystian now forges towards a future he never once imagined as his fate. For the Goddess never truly abandons her children born from the blessed rites of the Calan Mai.
For Trystian Pendragon isn’t just high born, he is Sliocht na Péiste— “born of the dragon”— and his future belongs to the Goddess and to the destiny of the royal Pendragon bloodline. Survive it all, and the Goddess Morrighan just might bless him with a reunified bond he’d once made within the Anáil Dhragain.

Reviewed by Dan

TITLE: Day of Wrath

SERIES: Taking Shield Book 5

AUTHOR: Anna Butler

PUBLISHER: Glass Hat Press

LENGTH: 370 Pages

RELEASE DATE:  June 28, 2018

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In less than a week, Bennet will finally return to the Shield Regiment, leaving behind the Gyrfalcon, his father, his friends… and Flynn. Promotion to Shield Major and being given command of a battle group despite the political fallout from Makepeace the year before is everything he thought he wanted. Everything he’s worked towards for the last three years. Except for leaving Flynn. He really doesn’t want to leave Flynn.

There’s time for one last flight together. A routine mission. Nothing too taxing, just savouring every moment with the best wingman, the best friend, he’s ever had. That’s the plan.

Bennet should know better than to trust to routine because what waits for them out there will change their lives forever.

Reviewed by Jess

TITLE: Ánh Sáng

AUTHOR: Barry Brennessel

PUBLISHER: Manifold Press

LENGTH: 120 pages

RELEASE DATE:  May 1, 2018

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When his father leaves Thái Nguyên City for the northernmost reaches of French Indochina, Bùi Vân Minh must shoulder new responsibilities to help keep the family afloat. His mother’s blindness and his uncle’s caustic personality add to the young man’s challenges.

A chance meeting with a captivating youth, Ngô Công Thao, throws Minh’s life off-kilter in a most exciting and confounding way.

The young men soon discover their feelings for one another transcend mere friendship. But the struggles under French colonial rule and the effects of the Great War alter their lives to a degree they never could have imagined.

REVIEWED BY CINDY

TITLE: Detour

SERIES: Transportation #1

AUTHOR: Reesa Herberth & Michelle Moore

PUBLISHER: Riptide Publishing

LENGTH: May 5th, 2018

RELEASE DATE: 302 Pages

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Ethan Domani had planned the perfect graduation trip before tragedy put his life on hold. Smothered by survivor’s guilt and his close-knit family, he makes a break for the open road. He doesn’t know what he’s looking for, but he’s got the whole summer to figure out who he misses more: his boyfriend, or the person he thought he was. It’s just him and his memories . . . until he almost runs over a hitchhiker.

Nick Hamilton made some mistakes after his younger brother died. His violent ex-boyfriend was the most dangerous, and the one that got him shipped off to Camp Cornerstone’s pray-the-gay-away boot camp. His eighteenth birthday brings escape, and a close call with an idiot in a station wagon. Stranger danger aside, Nick’s homeless, broke, and alone. A ride with Ethan is the best option he’s got.

The creepy corners of roadside America have nothing on the darkness haunting Ethan and Nick. Every interstate brings them closer to uncharted emotional territory. When Nick’s past shows up in their rearview mirror, the detour might take them off the map altogether.

Reviewed by Annika

TITLE: Galaxies and Oceans

AUTHOR: N.R. Walker

PUBLISHER: Self Published

RELEASE DATE: June 25, 2018

LENGTH: 313 Pages

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Seizing his one chance to escape, Ethan Hosking leaves his violent ex-boyfriend, leaves his entire life, and walks into the path of a raging bushfire. Desperate to start over, a new man named Aubrey Hobbs walks out of the fire-ravaged forest, alive and alone. With no ID and no money, nothing but his grandfather’s telescope, he goes where the Southern Cross leads him.

Patrick Carney is the resident lighthouse keeper in Hadley Cove, a small town on the remote Kangaroo Island off the coast of South Australia. After the tragic death of his lover four years ago, he lives a solitary life; just him, a tabby cat, the Indian and Southern Oceans, and a whole lot of loneliness. He’s content with his life until a stranger shows up in town and turns Patrick’s head.

Patrick never expected to be interested in anyone else.

Aubrey never expected to be happy.

Between Aubrey’s love of the stars and Patrick’s love of the ocean, these two fragile hearts must navigate new waters. If they can weather the storm of their pasts, they could very well have a love that eclipses everything.

Reviewed by Kat

TITLE: Discovery: A Demisexual Age Play Romance

SERIES: Kinky in the City #3

AUTHOR: Quinn Ward

PUBLISHER: Self Published

LENGTH: 171 pages

RELEASE DATE: June 26, 2018

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Sex is a lot like pizza. It’s good, but you won’t die without it…
Matteo’s always known he was different. Seeing his older brothers falling in love shines a spotlight on his own lack of desire. Modeling age play gear was a way to prove he could make his own decisions, nothing more.
Levi didn’t realize what a challenge it’d be directing the photo shoot for a new website. When he sees Matteo struggling, he instinctively falls into the role he’d given up years earlier: Daddy.
When Matteo discovers a side of himself he never expected, will Levi be able to show him that not all love begins with sexual attraction?

Discovery is the third book in the Kinky in the City series, but can be read as a standalone novel.

Reviewed by Becca

TITLE: Love Aggression

AUTHOR: Cindy Sutherland

PUBLISHER: Purple Horn Press, LLC

LENGTH: 231 pages

RELEASE DATE: May 30, 2018

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Tyler Calvano knew his ex-wife’s boyfriend was bad news from the way the little hairs on the back of his neck stood on end, from a smell of danger, from an animal instinct his ex had once appreciated. He wished she’d listened to him. Custody exchanges were hard enough on Jesse, now Ty had to wonder—did Jesse have enough wolf bursting inside him yet to have heard his mother’s pleas as she was gunned down? He couldn’t trust the police to protect them. He took Jesse and he fled across the continent, as far as he could go.
Ty and Jesse became Tanner and Jason—different names, different lives. The nightmares still woke Jesse. Ty kept looking over his shoulder. The only spot of light was a man at the daycare, Kelan, a shifter like Ty—a wolf in human guise, ready to change, ready to protect. The daycare was safe. But another shifter was something Ty hadn’t counted on. With it came the complications of pack rivalries, of shifter brothers who tormented Kelan, of the unreasoned animal want that grew every time Ty caught scent of him.
And every day, the killers kept looking for them, the only people who might identify them. Ty couldn’t take risks. Ty couldn’t open his heart. Ty had to keep Jesse safe. Nothing else mattered.

Reviewed by Jess

TITLE: Alchemy

AUTHOR: Marie S. Crosswell

PUBLISHER: Less Than Three Press

LENGTH: 61 pages

RELEASE DATE:  June 20, 2018

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When someone starts killing London’s homeless, Sherlock Holmes sets out to solve the series of grisly murders, taking her best friend and business partner Jane Watson along for the ride. The killer makes it clear he has a vendetta against Sherlock, and as she pursues him, she discovers there’s more to the case than meets the eye.

While struggling to identify the murderer, Sherlock’s close friendship with DI Lestrade reaches a crossroads, and she faces an unprecedented challenge: romance.