Day: April 19, 2015

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Spring Break at Villa Hermes (Brandt and Donelly book 4)by Xavier Mayne

Dreamspinner Presents http://www.dreamspinnerpress.com/store/product_info.php?products_id=6231

SpringBreakattheVillaHermesBlurb
Troopers Ethan Brandt and Gabriel Donnelly celebrate the one-year anniversary of their engagement by flying south for a week of calm relaxation at the Villa Hermes, a gay boutique hotel on the beach. But when the rest of the guests turn out to be college guys on spring break (unwittingly booked into a gay hotel by a passive-aggressive travel agent), their week turns out to be anything but calm.

Ted, one of the spring breakers, has harbored a crush on his roommate and best friend, Bark, since they met freshman year. Now, on their fourth and final spring break, Ted knows they must soon say good-bye. A lacrosse star and ladies’ man, Bark has no idea Ted has fallen for him—until a storm forces the entire group underground for twenty-four hours of stress and truth-telling. Bark doesn’t want to say good-bye to Ted at graduation either. He just didn’t know how to put his feelings into words or if he could face the consequences of speaking them. Brandt and Donnelly help the college guys through their crisis by showing them what love between best friends can grow into.

Review

Ted and Bark are friends and roommates in their last year at the university. This is to the their last “hoorah” and Ted plans to say good-bye to the man who’s been his unrequited love interest for the last four years. But when a manipulative travel agency books Ted and his friends at the same gay resort as Brandt and Donelly a lot of things happen that change that plan.

**
This is an absolutely hysterical and lovely story. Ted’s friends are full of charismatic stories that get told one night as they all huddle against a storm.  Each striving to be their own man and to deal with their own sexuality in ways that none of the others ever guessed.

Xavier Mayne has given us more wonderful secondary characters with just as much flavor as Bryce and Nestor.  I also love that Xavier is not shy about letting the secondary characters sometimes steal some of the limelight.  In this case Ted and Bark’s story, though lovely and really sweet, has moments where it is eclipsed by the tale of the underwear model and the bear and a blossoming bi-sexual hippy.

I love that we continue to be awed by the love between Brandt and Donelly again – there are still layers to explore in their relationship- and it is always fun to check in on them as they get closer to marriage.

I have really enjoyed this series tremendously and I think that this comes in second as my favorite of the bunch.

I whole-heartedly recommend it and give it 5 of 5 hearts.

5

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Rainbow Blues by KC Burn

Dreampsinner Presents http://www.dreamspinnerpress.com/store/product_info.php?products_id=5102

RainbowBluesBlurb

Having come out late in life, forty-three-year-old Luke Jordan is at a loss about how to conduct himself as a gay man. As a construction manager, he’s not interested in being out at work, but he’d like to find a boyfriend or at least some gay friends. Two years after his wife got all their friends in the divorce, he’s no closer to the life he wants.

Zach, Luke’s adult son, takes charge and signs him up for the Rainbow Blues, a social group for gay blue-collar workers. At an event, he not only finds friends but meets Jimmy Alexander, part-time stage actor and full-time high school biology teacher. Jimmy loves the stage but wishes potential boyfriends weren’t so jealous of the time he devotes to it. When he meets Luke and finds him accepting of his many facets, he thinks it’s a dream come true.

Their relationship quickly moves into serious territory, but their connection is tested to its breaking point by the offer of a juicy movie role that takes Jimmy to the opposite coast and into the path of a very sexy costar.

Review

(From previous site)

I really, really enjoyed this new book by KC Burn.

I was already a KC Burn fan through her Cop Out series, so when I saw she had a new book coming out, I was excited.  When I saw that it was about an older man and another older man, my NOT twenty-something heart just about burst!

Without being depressing or boring, KC gives us a nicely more-realistic love story (I say more, because it is still a romance after all) between guys who are closer to 40 than 20.  The relationship has to survive busy careers, time management issues, long distance, kids and the two MCs have to make time for their relationship.  (When I read what I just wrote it sounds tedious and humdrum, but it wasn’t!  It was gentle, and caring, sometimes very sexy and hot and yet very really sweet and loving. )

Jimmy can be a neurotic queen, but you love each neurosis and totally root for him.  Zach, the son, is sometimes a selfish prick, but we understand his motives and love him, too.  And poor Ryan… well – you’ll have to read it to see what happens to him.

My only complaint is Luke:  he’s maybe a little too flawless.  He didn’t get to do much growing beyond his initial “I’m divorced and alone and I don’t know how to fix it” phase at the beginning.  After his son “fixes” that, he is pretty much perfect. He seems to have read and follow the  “How to be a great and understanding boyfriend” book, to the letter.

But – it works.  I just fell in love with Jimmy and Luke, and I suspended my disbelief and accepted that sometimes Hollywood will just come knocking on your door and that your twenty-four year old son will think your thirty eight year old boyfriend is a boy toy, and that your very first non-hetero relationship will be perfection…

Overall, it was great to read about older men NOT falling in love with someone half their age, (though that can be a good story) it’s a nice change of pace.  It was nice reading about a mature relationship unfolding in a way that you could really see happening to you or any of your single friends.

KC is a great writer, with lovely timing and an excellent editor.

I highly recommend this book – giving it a 4.5 (deducting only for the lack of true angst in Luke).

4.5

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More Than Chemistry-Kate Sherwood

Dreamspinner Press

Jack Lawson grew up poor and can’t forget it. He’s a huge success in the business world, but it won’t be enough until the image of “poor little Jack” is completely wiped away. When Jack runs into his old friend, Noah Mercier, he decides that Noah’s sister, an up-and-coming movie star, would be the perfect evidence of glamorous success. If Jack can win Hayley, it will be clear to everyone, including himself, that he has truly arrived.

The problem with Jack’s grand plan is that he’s more attracted to Noah. Jack’s never worried about the gender of his conquests, but Noah just isn’t flashy enough for Jack’s scheme to set the world on fire… unless Jack realizes he has practically no control over deciding who he wants—and even less choice in who he needs. 

  

This was a nice little novella which gave us the story of billionaire businessman Jack who runs into a former high school classmate Noah during a meeting with the advertising company Noah works for.  This cute little romantic comedy that’s perfect for someone who may be in search of a light read. Jack’s character I felt was a bit odd it was just something off about him. Oh, it was nothing serious, it was just the fact that I had a hard time believing that he was this successful billionaire businessman. His personality was not a personality that I would think would fit a billionaire businessman type but that’s okay as it made the story a little more interesting. He had a great sense humor, which is good, but I felt that sometimes he was a little too funny for a businessman to be. I felt like it would’ve been hard to take him seriously because he was more funny than serious. I felt that he hid behind his humor a lot to hide his insecurity. This insecurity is residual from his childhood. He grew up poor so now he’s finally in a position where his dreams are finally realized. Even though he’s the successful powerful billionaire businessman intelligent handsome has everything going for him on the inside he still the poor and insecure teenager from high school who never felt that he was good enough. This is what drives him to make this ridiculous deal with Noah in reference to his sister who is on her way to becoming a celebrity.

Noah is shy and unassuming which causes people to overlook him at times and he doesn’t seem to mind because he really does not like the spotlight being shined on him. He needs Jack and there is a connection between the two but somehow or another Jack decides he has to have the sister to prove to himself more than anyone else that yeah, he’s finally a success because he was able to have a celebrity on his arm. A celebrity who would’ve been nothing more than a trophy because she was not who Jack wanted or needed to be with. 

This story was nice although I think it could’ve had a little more spice to it. I’m not saying full out sex scenes should’ve been written in,  just that it would’ve hurt to have had a little more spice or heat added to it. This know that it was more like a plain salad without the dressing: it’s cool,refreshing, and bland, but still tastes nice. 

⭐️⭐️⭐️