Reviewed by Larissa

TITLE:  Ice Angels

SERIES: A Holiday Hockey Story

AUTHOR:  Ryan Taylor and Joshua Harwood

PUBLISHER:  Wainscott Press

LENGTH:  165 pages

RELEASE DATE:  October 29, 2021

BLURB:

Drew and Cleevs love hockey, but they love each other more. How can the men find a way to save what matters most?

Todd Cleever and Drew Simon are crazy about each other. They started dating three years ago when “Cleevs” was a rookie defenseman for the Chicago Ice. Drew, the team’s captain, was a few years older than Cleevs. Both men were deep in the closet, but it didn’t take long for them to fall in love.

Cleevs was traded to the Bethesda Barracudas a year later, causing a heartbreaking separation. Ever since, they’ve skated around the problem with occasional stolen nights together and brief vacations under the guise of “friends,” but two years of living apart have taken their toll.

As the holiday approaches, Drew and Cleevs decide things have to change. Still, with their careers and two professional hockey teams in the way, how can they score the game-winning goal and save everything they cherish most?

If you like fierce love, a smallish age gap, exciting hockey, and a steely determination to make things work—not to mention enough steam to fog up all your windows and a fantastic HEA—this is the book for you. The novella contains about 43,000 words of sparkling holiday romance.

Reviewed by Cheryl K

TITLE: Ghost Ship

SERIES: Haunted Souls #10

AUTHOR: Pandora Pine

PUBLISHER: Self published

LENGTH: 244 pages

RELEASE DATE: May 13, 2021

BLURB:

Lovers separated in death. A family terrorized for generations. Can Jude and Cope solve the mystery before it drags them under?

Cope, already plagued by dreams of a watery death aboard the Titanic, is asked to help a haunted family in Nova Scotia. The Bennett’s assisted in the recovery efforts following the Titanic disaster more than a century ago and have been tormented by an angry spirit ever since. Taking the job would mean travelling, and Cope doesn’t want to miss a moment with his husband and son.

Countless families were destroyed, loved ones gone forever when the Titanic sank. Tierney O’Rourke lost his lover Rian Shaughnessy in the disaster, but when he dies many years later, his spirit is devastated to still be alone. When he asks Jude to help him find his lover’s ghost so they can at last be at peace, it’s clear fate wants both investigators working the White Star Line tragedy.

If they fail, the Bennett’s will shatter under the strain of the century-long haunting. And if Jude and Cope can’t help Tierney and his true love reunite, what hope do they have for an eternity together of their own?

Ghost Ship is the tenth book in the thrilling Haunted Souls series. Jude and Cope will suck you in with their amazing mysteries and love that fills your soul. Come back to the folks at West Side Magick today!

Reviewed by Sadonna

TITLE:  Stubborn Boys 

SERIES:  Perfect Boys #3

AUTHOR:  K.M. Neuhold

PUBLISHER:  Self-published

LENGTH:  253 Pages

RELEASE DATE:  November 12, 2021

BLURB:

Alden has always liked a challenge, and what could be more difficult than not one, but two stubborn boys?

Five years ago the military returned me home short one leg with scars covering one side of my body. I learned to live with it, I built a new life for myself, and I found a way to love the new body I was given… there’s just one thing I can’t accept.

I have no right to want someone as vibrant and beautiful as Nolan, not when a very vital part of my anatomy doesn’t want to work anymore. What use would a man like that be to him?

Alden can’t seem to stop meddling between the two of us, and I hate to admit it, but there’s something about him that manages to fix what’s broken in me.

Has anyone else ever developed a Daddy kink after getting blown to smithereens, or is it just me?

More importantly, are the three of us going to be able to find a way to fit together?

REVIEWED by Jay V.

TITLE: A Mage’s Guide to Human Familiars

AUTHOR: AJ Sherwood

SERIES: R’iyah Family Archives #1

PUBLISHER: Self Published

RELEASE DATE: November 5, 2021

BLURB:

One mage, Bel Adams – needs a familiar, gun shy about being rejected by one again.

One familiar, Nico di Rossi – Army Ranger, needs a change of pace and a new purpose in life.

Plus one familiar, Garen Adan – Secret Service, needs his ex-lover Nico back.

One second chance – all for the taking.

Reviewed by Valerie

TITLE:  Dearest Malachi Keogh

SERIES:  Dearest Milton James #2

AUTHOR:  N.R. Walker

PUBLISHER:  BlueHeart Press

LENGTH:  39 pages

RELEASE DATE:  November 15, 2021

BLURB:

Julian Pollard never believed in love at first sight. That was until he met Malachi Keogh. Well, maybe it wasn’t love at first sight, but it sure was something.

Julian had forgotten how to live, how to be happy, and Malachi changed all that. Now together for four years, Julian wants to give Malachi a Christmas he’ll never forget.

The only problem is, Christmas at a mail distribution centre is the busiest time of the year. It just might take the whole team to make it happen.

Reviewed by True

TITLE: Moonstruck

SERIES: Necessary Evils #3

AUTHOR: Onley James

PUBLISHER: Self-Published

LENGTH: 298 pages

RELEASE DATE: October 27, 2021

BLURB:

Atticus Mulvaney is the eldest son of eccentric billionaire, Thomas Mulvaney—a role he takes very seriously. Atticus takes everything seriously. Like his brothers, Atticus is a psychopath, raised to right the wrongs of a broken justice system. Unlike his brothers, he’s not very good at it.

Jericho Navarro is no psychopath, but he is a vicious killer. Like Atticus, he also has a secret life. To most, he’s just a mechanic. But to a ragtag group of social misfits, he’s Peter Pan, teaching them to eliminate those who prey on the weak with extreme prejudice.

When Atticus and Jericho come face to face over a shared enemy, their accidental meeting ends in an explosively hot hookup neither can forget. But they have nothing in common. Atticus is a buttoned-up closeted scientist and Jericho is a man on a mission, determined to find and punish those responsible for the death of his sister. Still, Jericho can’t stay away. And, truthfully, Atticus doesn’t want him to.

As Jericho’s mission begins to bleed into Atticus’s life, two separate but equally brutal families will need to learn how to fight together to take out a common enemy. But no amount of brute force can show Jericho how to scale the walls of a psychopath’s heart. Can Jericho convince Atticus that, sometimes, the couple who kills together stays together?

Reviewed by Valerie

TITLE:  Red Dirt Heart Series Collection

AUTHOR:  N.R. Walker

PUBLISHER:  Blue Heart Press

LENGTH: 1120 pages

RELEASE DATE:  October 11, 2021

BLURB:

The Red Dirt Heart Series Collection

Welcome to Sutton Station: One of the world’s largest working farms in the middle of Australia – where if the animals and heat don’t kill you first, your heart just might.

Book One

Charlie Sutton runs Sutton Station the only way he knows how; the way his father did before him. Determined to keep his head down and his heart in check, Charlie swears the red dirt that surrounds him – isolates him – runs through his veins.

American agronomy student Travis Craig arrives at Sutton Station to see how farmers make a living from one of the harshest environments on earth. But it’s not the barren, brutal and totally beautiful landscapes that capture him so completely.

It’s the man with the red dirt heart.

Book Two
Up until Travis arrived on his doorstep, Charlie had lived a very solitary life. He had surrounded himself with isolation; a couple million acres of red dirt, scorching sun and loneliness. Six months on, winter has settled over the desert, and Charlie has the life he never dreamed possible. But living and working together, twenty four hours a day, seven days a week, for six months straight starts to take its toll.

Charlie is a stubborn, stubborn man, who tends to have more conversations in his head than what comes out his mouth, whereas Travis has no problem saying what’s on his mind. And even as they both struggle to communicate, struggle to make sense of need versus want, Charlie can see that he’s pushing Travis away – yet seems helpless to stop it.

When it all boils down to whether Travis should stay or go, maybe the decision won’t be theirs to make.

Book Three
Life for Charlie Sutton has never been better, or busier.

With Travis now a permanent fixture of Sutton Station, a permanent fixture at Charlie’s side, Charlie’s convinced he couldn’t do anything on his ever-growing to-do list without him. He can run a multimillion-dollar cattle business, finish his degree, try and further the local beef industry, deal with staff issues, Ma’s failing health, and an attention-demanding wombat. He can even deal with an unexpected visitor and some shattering news. He can deal with it all, as long as he has Travis.

But what happens when he doesn’t? Red Dirt Heart 3 is the story of Charlie Sutton finally realising he can be the man Travis Craig deserves, even if he doesn’t have Travis. It’s a story of love, family, holding on, letting go and coming home.

Book Four
Moving from a Texas ranch to an Australian Outback station was a life changing decision for Travis Craig. Though it wasn’t really a decision at all. Something in his bones told him to go, though he had no clue as to why. Until he met Sutton Station’s owner, Charlie.

Loving Charlie shouldn’t have been easy. The man was stubborn, and riddled with crippling self-doubt. No, it shouldn’t have been easy at all. Yet somehow, falling in love with Charlie was the easiest thing in the world. Loving him was easy. Living with him, teaching him how to love in return and, more importantly, how to love himself, was not.

But Travis knew all along it’d be worth it. He knew the man with the red dirt heart was destined to be his. Just like he knew the red dirt that surrounded him was where he was supposed to be. In the final installment of the Red Dirt Series, we see Charlie through Travis’ eyes. We see how much he’s grown and how much he loves. We go back to Texas with them, and we see Charlie get everything he truly thought he never deserved.

Red Dirt Heart 4 is Travis’ story. And this is the story of not just one red dirt heart, but two.

Also included:
Red Dirt Heart Christmas short story
Red Dirt Heart Imago crossover

Reviewed by Valerie

TITLE:  The Cuckoo’s Call

AUTHOR:  Lily Morton

PUBLISHER:  Self-Published

LENGTH:  331 pages

RELEASE DATE:  November 20, 2021

BLURB:

Can a summer romance last forever?

Wren Roberts thought he’d found his fairy tale when he met Mateo Rossi on holiday in Majorca. The wealthy and successful older man swept him off his feet, and before he knew it, he’d thrown caution to the wind and was living in Mateo’s waterside apartment in Venice. It’s a far cry from his harsh upbringing and crummy flat in London.

But as the summer turns to autumn, cracks begin to show. Mateo’s family aren’t welcoming, and there doesn’t seem to be a place for Wren in Mateo’s world. He could have coped with all of that, but Mateo himself seems like a different person away from the sunshine island.

Should Wren have been more cautious in riding off into the sunset when he wasn’t sure what lay over the horizon?