Reviewed by Stephen K.

TITLE: Openly Straight

SERIES: Openly Straight #1

AUTHOR: Bill Konigsberg

PUBLISHER:  Arthur A. Levine Books

LENGTH: 339 Pages

RELEASE DATE: May 28^th 2013

BLURB:

A funny, honest novel about being out, being proud … and being ready for something else.

Rafe is a normal teenager from Boulder, Colorado. He plays soccer. He’s won skiing prizes. He likes to write.

And, oh yeah, he’s gay. He’s been out since 8th grade, and he isn’t teased, and he goes to other high schools and talks about tolerance and stuff. And while that’s important, all Rafe really wants is to just be a regular guy. Not that GAY guy. To have it be a part of who he is, but not the headline, every single time.

So when he transfers to an all-boys’ boarding school in New England, he decides to keep his sexuality a secret — not so much going back in the closet as starting over with a clean slate. But then he sees a classmate breaking down. He meets a teacher who challenges him to write his story. And most of all, he falls in love with Ben … who doesn’t even know that love is possible.

This witty, smart, coming-out-again story will appeal to gay and straight kids alike as they watch Rafe navigate being different, fitting in, and what it means to be himself.

Reviewed by Valerie

TITLE:  Emerett Has Never Been in Love

SERIES:  Love, Austen #1

AUTHOR:  Anyta Sunday

PUBLISHER:  Self-Published

LENGTH:  262 pages

RELEASE DATE:  March 15, 2021

BLURB:

Emerett “Lake” Lakewood has a healthy ego and a flair for the dramatic. After losing his best friend to marriage—completely crushing his heart—he deems it prudent to distract himself, and what better way than playing cupid?

He’s already got his eye on two young men desperately seeking romance, and he has a plan to hook them up.
Barbecues.
Photoshoots.
Reciting Shakespearean love declarations.

Lake is killing it. Love is positively pulsing in the air. Anyone could see it.
Well, anyone other than Knight, his best friend’s dad, who cautions Lake to stop meddling. To leave love to its natural course.

Lake has always valued Knight’s frankness, but this time he’s wrong. Without him, two hearts might be doomed never to find love. Besides, what does Knight know about romance? He’s barely dated in all the seven years Lake’s known him. He’s clueless.

Though, there’s a thought. Knight has everything going for him. Sensibility. Kindness. Generosity. And for a forty-four-year-old, he’s—objectively—freaking hot.
Why is he single?

Reviewed by Anna Lynn

TITLE:  Stud

SERIES:  Four Bears Construction

AUTHOR:  K.M. Neuhold

PUBLISHER:  Self-Published

LENGTH:  301 pages

RELEASE DATE:  March 11, 2021

BLURB:

Stud: A boss, knob, or nail head…or, you know, the hot guy who’s way too young to keep asking me out with that adorably earnest smile…

It’s been three years since West walked into my bar and asked me out for the first time. I was relieved he stopped asking after the first few “no”s and a way-too-good-to-be-real kiss. He’s fifteen years younger than I am; it can only lead to trouble.

Of course, now he’s running through people off dating apps like it’s his job and wearing these lace panties that look really unfair on someone as furry and muscular as he is, and, um…what was I talking about?

I probably shouldn’t sabotage his dates, but I’m only human. I might not be ready to admit that I want him, but I’m definitely not ready to let anyone else have him either.

He’s too perfect, too hot, and I am in way too much trouble…

Reviewed by Larissa

TITLE: Falling for Trouble

SERIES:  His Best Friend’s Brother Book 5

AUTHOR: R. Cayden

PUBLISHER: self-published

LENGTH: 182 pages

RELEASE DATE: March 10, 2021

BLURB:

Steamy trouble with his best friend’s long-lost brother

Peyton

I thought he was a stranger when we met—a night that started in a bar, working up the courage to explore my sexuality.
But it wasn’t until Jet dropped his wallet in an alley thirty minutes later that I saw his legal name, Alastair Brown, and my heart stopped.
My friend and business partner, Noah Brown, had a brother with that name.
A brother he hadn’t seen in years, a famous DJ and party boy with a reputation for causing scandals.
Scandals like dragging a straight-laced architect into an alley, pushing me against a brick wall, and blowing my mind.
Suddenly, Jet and I are thrown together, our lives colliding.
He’s nothing like what I expected, yet somehow, exactly who I need.
But even if my tattooed party boy is willing to try for something more, will Noah accept his troublemaking brother as the one for his straight best friend?

Falling for Trouble is a steamy, low-angst MM romance with an HEA. Peyton and Jet’s story features sizzling heat, new beginnings, and a man learning to accept that he’s become a hot bear. It can be read as a standalone and is the fifth and final novel in His Best Friend’s Brother. 

Reviewed by Larissa

TITLE: Vanilla Steamer

SERIES: Bold Brew Book #4

AUTHOR: Crystal Lacy

PUBLISHER: self-published

LENGTH: 180 pages

RELEASE DATE: March 18, 2021

BLURB:

Our barista likes some spice in his vanilla—and it turns out the customer he’s crushing on might as well.

Vann enjoys his barista job. He enjoys it even more when Landon becomes an early morning regular. Vann can’t resist flirting with the quiet doctor, even though he’s about eighty percent sure Landon is vanilla. That other twenty percent keeps him pushing at Landon’s buttons every time he comes in.

Things such as rope and impact play have never been on Landon’s radar. That changes after he develops an unrelenting crush on the barista who works at the local coffee shop. When he spends more time with Vann, Landon begins to realize his desires are anything but vanilla.

As the two explore Landon’s limits together, shadows of the past materialize to test them. Can Vann and Landon meet those challenges and strengthen their new relationship?

Vanilla Steamer is a stand-alone novel in the multi-author Bold Brew shared universe centered around an inclusive coffee shop set in a fictional small city. Each steaming hot coffee shop romance can be enjoyed alone, but collect all ten for the most fun! This steamy 53,000 word story has themes of new explorations and hurt/comfort, and is relatively low-angst, with a much-deserved happy ending.

Reviewed by Becca

TITLE: Geoffrey the Very Strange

SERIES: Magic Emporium #9

AUTHOR: Angel Martinez

PUBLISHER: Mischief Corner Books

LENGTH: 169 pages

RELEASE DATE: March 18, 2021

BLURB:

An outcast necromancer and a half-demon clerk need to save the world from seashell zombies. No pressure.

Everyone’s always told Aspic that trouble can’t help following him because of his heritage. Determined to put the lie to half-demon stereotypes, he’s finally landed a good, quiet job as an herbalist’s clerk where the owner trusts him to man the shop alone. What could go wrong selling coriander and thyme?

When Geoffrey first enters the shop, Aspic finds the little man’s eccentric appearance startling, then intriguing. Geoffrey explains, in stops and starts, that he is a theoretical necromancer researching replacements for blood magic. His current line of inquiry involves seashells—do they have any in stock? Aspic’s co-workers warn him that Geoffrey is a walking disaster, but he finds himself more and more drawn to a necromancer concerned with ethical death magic.

Aspic is with Geoffrey in his lab when he has his first success, but the results aren’t at all what he was aiming for. Instead of raising the dead rabbit on his table, the ritual animates the seashell and rock spell components, which flee the lab and cause havoc. They soon discover that the spell-animated objects are “zombies” in that they can “infect” other inanimate things.

An unorthodox necromancer and an exasperated shop clerk are going to need some unconventional help to find a working de-animation spell before the world is overrun by zombie seashells and stones gone mad.

Geoffrey the Very Strange is part of the Magic Emporium series. Each book stands alone, but each one features an appearance by Marden’s Magic Emporium, a shop that can appear anywhere, but only once and only when someone’s in dire need.

This book contains theoretical necromancy, unexpected spell outcomes, some extraordinarily angry seashells, and a guaranteed HEA.

Reviewed by Larissa

TITLE: Adler’s Hart

SERIES:  Brigs Ferry Bay Book 2.5

AUTHOR: Misty Walker

PUBLISHER: self published

LENGTH: 131 pages

RELEASE DATE: March 17, 2021

BLURB:

If you have no heart, it won’t get broken.
Fate sends Adler one anyway.

I’m a loner.
Never getting too comfortable or allowing anyone to get too close.
So when I log onto the hook-up app on my last night in Ketchikan, Alaska,
I assume it’ll be a quick lay before I go south for the winter.
That is until I see the man who shows up at my door.
He’s young, wide-eyed, and perfect.

All I wanted was a one-night stand with no attachment,
I should’ve known things would be different with a man named Hart.
And after the best night of my life, I’m desperate to run.
Except we’re snowed in.

I try to keep him at a distance.
But there’s something about him that has me opening up,
letting him in against my better judgement.

Suddenly I don’t want to be alone anymore.
I want to be with him.
My Hart.

Reviewed by Larissa

TITLE:  The Foreman and the Drifter

SERIES:  Farthingdale Ranch Book 1

AUTHOR:  Jackie North

PUBLISHER:  Self

RELEASE DATE:  March 15, 2021

BLURB:

“If only Leland would forget that Jamie was a drifter. If only he’d give their hearts a chance.”

With Farthingdale Ranch at risk, Leland Tate, ranch manager, has to get tough and make sure everyone on the ranch follows the rules he’s laid out. That means no handouts, no fraternizing, and no drifters.

But what happens when a young drifter comes looking for a job? What happens when that drifter makes Leland want to break all the rules?

A gay, m/m cowboy romance with age gap, hurt/comfort, first time, rescue, sunshine/grumpy, boss/employee, emotional scars, and opposites attract. A little sweet, a little steamy, with a guaranteed HEA.

Reviewed by Becca

TITLE: The Young Man’s Guide to Love and Loyalty

SERIES: Magic Emporium #8

AUTHOR: Clara Merrick

PUBLISHER: self-published

LENGTH: 218 pages

RELEASE DATE: March 11, 2021

BLURB:

Loyalty is Lieutenant Owain Morgan’s watchword—loyalty to England’s Queen Elizabeth XII, to her daughter the Princess of Wales, and to the Royal Navy in which he serves. When his loyalty leads him into danger, an unseen something—or someone—lends a helping hand. Is he imagining it? Could it be a guardian angel? Or is it someone—or something—else?

Enter the intriguing Benjamin Fletcher. Owain knows that sharing a drink and a steamy afternoon together doesn’t have to mean anything, but Benjamin’s quiet charm works its way into his heart…. Until Benjamin turns up in the Earl of Essex’s retinue, that same Earl who, rumor says, is angling to marry the Princess of Wales and make her power his own.

Every encounter with Benjamin binds Owain’s heart more tightly to this enigmatic man yet tests his loyalty to Queen and Country. Will Owain be forced to choose between love and loyalty?

The Young Man’s Guide to Love and Loyalty is part of the Magic Emporium Series. Each book stands alone, but each one features an appearance by Marden’s Magic Emporium, a shop that can appear anywhere, but only once and only when someone’s in dire need. This alternate history contains princesses, palaces, steam trains, fumbling lovers, and a guaranteed HEA.

Reviewed by Kimberley

TITLE: Alpha Rush

SERIES: J.T.’s Bar #7 

AUTHOR: Sue Brown

PUBLISHER: One Hat Press

LENGTH: 180 pages

RELEASE DATE: March 11, 2021

BLURB:

His lover is missing. There’s a fierce storm coming. His romantic vacation has turned into a nightmare. If Costa makes the call to his team, will they come?

It was supposed to be a calm vacation. A chance to decompress after a dangerous mission. To find out if the heated kisses between him and Collins could turn into something more.
When Collins disappears after an argument, Costa is miles from home and on his own. Is he overreacting? It’s only been a couple of days. Is Collins really missing or is he holed up in a bar somewhere like everyone believes?
But time runs out. A ferocious storm is due to hit the resort, and Costa needs help. But will his team come when they realize he’s asking them to find Collins?

Book 7 in Sue Brown’s tense action series where risk and romance are played for high stakes. Passion and danger are always close to home in J.T’s Bar, where alpha men get a second chance at love.