The war is at a fever pitch with both sides stretched to the limit, when the dark wizards score a shocking victory and capture Orlando St. Clair. Haggard with worry and grief at the separation from his lover, Alain fears that even if they find Orlando, the vampire’s heart and mind may be far too broken to save.
Knowing the Alliance teeters on the brink, Christophe Lombard, the oldest, most powerful vampire in Paris leaves his self-imposed seclusion to join the fight. Alain’s lost friend Eric Simonet, who betrayed him to join the dark wizards, is faced with a choice between revenge and redemption. And Jean, enraged by Orlando’s capture, faces the most agonizing decision in his unlife as the final battle looms: Will their actions lead to the shattering of the Alliance or the salvation of the world?
Review
This is the finale (sort of) to the Partnership in Blood series. Really, it’s the end of the war, there is still some relationship stuff to be dealt with in 3 more books that follow.
Essentially, we see the various couples moving through their relationships some more. Some more sex. Some more angst. Some more drama.
Orlando goes missing. This is a huge hurdle in this book. It takes a lot of cooperation to get him back.
After the war dies down, the focus is on the couples and what will happen next.
If I could I would tell you to NOT READ THE EPILOGUE. Personally, it really didn’t need to be there and just made me cry and cry. I got kinda mad in fact… I can’t understand why it was necessary, unless it was just one more bit of proof of the devotion between these two characters…
Anyhow, I was glad to see the war finally end and know that in the upcoming books we get to see more of these wonderful characters that Ariel Tachna has done such an amazing job of creating.
If I had to give an overall summary for the series it would be this: If you enjoy very detailed stories, with an abundance of central characters, if you don’t mind f/f and m/f storylines and you don’t mind a good cry, you’ll find this series highly satisfying.
I had to round this book down to 3.5 of 5 hearts for the Epilogue alone. Personal preference. I guess I just enjoy living in ignorance sometimes…
BLURB: As former NSA, Dayton (Day) Ingram has national security chops and now works as a technical analyst for Scorpion. He longs for fieldwork, and scuttling an attack gives him his chance. He’s smart, multilingual, and a technological wizard. But his opportunity comes with a hitch—a partner, Knighton (Knight), who is a real mystery. Despite countless hours of research, Day can find nothing on the agent, including his first name!
Former Marine Knight crawled into a bottle after losing his family. After drying out, he’s offered one last chance: along with Day, stop a terrorist threat from the Yucatan. To get there without drawing suspicion, Day and Knight board a gay cruise, where the deeply closeted Day and equally closeted Knight must pose as a couple. Tensions run high as Knight communicates very little and Day bristles at Knight’s heavy-handed need for control.
But after drinking too much, Day and Knight wake up in bed. Together. As they near their destination, they must learn to trust and rely on each other to infiltrate the terrorist camp and neutralize the plot aimed at the US’s technological infrastructure, if they hope to have a life after the mission. One that might include each other.
REVIEW: I went into this book expecting to love it. Reading the blurb, I was really excited to get started on it. This is why I was so heartbroken at being disappointed by it. The actual writing wasn’t bad at all, the editing was fantastic. It was the technical aspect and tone of the book in certain parts that I just didn’t ‘gel’ with. The first think that I found odd was the story’s et up. You ah e s guy who’s under attack by these thugs. Day moves in to help the poor fellow out but reaches into his pocket for his phone to dial 911 only to realize it’s dead. Okay, now here is where it gets a bit odd. He’s standing there contemplating the why and how that is. In the meantime, what’s going on with the thugs attacking the kid? Did they stop what they were doing while he was pondering his phone’s battery life? i found that very odd and it threw the rest of the story off for me. Then there’s the technical aspect. Costa Maya, Quintana Roo, was made to sound like it was this isolated or remote area when that is not the case. Curious at to where it is, I ended up Googling the region and was surprised when I found a small, but touristy region. So in looking at this, I asked myself if it was the type of place where the locals or any government entity would not notice a building or base, if you will, set up and run by a group of individuals not native to the area, and no one is going to question it? That, more than anything, confused me. Also, I felt that their characters were a bit cold; I couldn’t seem to connect with any of them. Like I’ve stated earlier, the writing itself wasn’t bad, it was just the poor research and lack of character depth that did the book in for me. RATING: ❤️❤️❤️
After his sister’s death, businessman Marshall Hunter gains custody of his niece. Unused to children, Marshall struggles to connect with her. In an effort to make her more comfortable in her new home, he hires professional muralist Pace Barlow to personalize her room.
Pace is intrigued by his tiny client, and even more interested in her handsome uncle, but Pace isn’t certain he’s ready for the commitment of an instant family.
When Marshall decides to move for the sake of his niece, will he be able to keep his relationship with his young artist, or will he have to give up love to become a good father for a lonely little girl?
The love baked into an old-fashioned recipe might bring the two men together, but some things take more than magical cookies to fix.
Review
This is another installment from the magical cook book that helps people in need. In this case Marshall is a lonely, suddenly single father who needs someone in his life and help with his niece whom he is now guardian to.
Pace is the carefree artist he meets to help paint her room but finds he’s ridiculously attracted to.
Together they rapidly move through “getting to know you” to hitting the sheets to moving in together. It’s a short story and we have to just accept that between the magic in the cookies and suspending our disbelief, these men can find a deep and abiding love in a very short time.
Their chemistry is excellent and the story is short and sweet.
Overall I thought it was a nice, “light” story and if you don’t take it too seriously, a lot of fun.
Waikiki vampires Tem and Jimmy Thunder are happily undead and married, about to celebrate Christmas when their cat Moontime brings an unusual treasure to the door…a baby in a box. But this is no cute, cuddly kid. It’s a demon baby with red eyes and razor sharp teeth. Jimmy, hopelessly besotted with his hot and sexy husband, sees his new life of man-on-man fun being wrecked by this snarling, spitting, forked-tongued little incubus that has apparently won Tem’s heart.
With half of Waikiki’s wacky residents coming to Christmas dinner, what’s a devoted husband to do? Jimmy calls in all kinds of favors to figure out the identity of the kid, how he got to them, and how to ensure this will be a merry—not marred—Vampire Christmas.
Review
This is the short, funny, kinda bizarre and very steamy next installment in the Vampire in Waikiki series.
Tem finds a cursed baby and wants to keep it and name it George… ok not George but Beezlebub. Div is worried about raising a baby and losing some of Tem’s attention. But it becomes clear that the baby needs their help so they enlist the help of some more of their strange acquaintances and… hilarity ensues.
Interspersed with the hilarity is all the way-hot-vampire-porn-star-sex and it’s both sweet and raucous.
If you enjoyed book one in the series you will want to keep going. This is better (in my opinion) than book one as it seems to have found more focus and since the characters are already developed we get to simply enjoy them.
Doug Johnston is his brother Paul’s primary caregiver. Though Paul’s disease dictates he shouldn’t live past the age of twenty-five, Paul’s thirtieth birthday is a few months away. The brothers have only had each other since their mother passed away years earlier and their father left shortly after Paul’s diagnosis with Becker’s muscular dystrophy. Though mostly happy with his life, Doug would love to be in a relationship, but he won’t settle for anyone but the perfect man.
Carson Oliver used to be the man everyone recognized and wanted, But when the top-rated DIY program he hosted was canceled in the late 90s, he sought comfort in food… lots of food. While he owns a landscaping business and family farm, he doesn’t think life has much more to offer than working and taking care of his ailing mother. When he meets Doug, the attraction is immediate. It is aided by an important role Carson once played in Doug and Paul’s lives—one Carson doesn’t remember but they’ve never forgotten.
When Carson doesn’t believe anyone can possibly want him the way he is, Doug sets out to prove him wrong. With the assistance of his enthusiastic brother, Carson’s unrestrained mother, and her crazy cat, Doug just might get the job done.
Review
Doug takes care of his brother and works as a waiter. One day he sees Carson who helped his mom years ago, and “saves him” from some mean comments. Doug doesn’t see an overweight guy, just a beautiful man with a lot of talent.
Carson used to be on TV, he lost his job and ended up drowning his sorrow in food. Now he feels ugly and unlovable. He can’t accept a good looking guy like Doug is actually interested in him, but can’t help but want to be around him and his brother.
The two begin a friendship that slowly evolves to more as Carson begins to trust in himself and Doug.
There are hurdles, Paul’s health, Carson’s self image, Carson’s mother, careers… but they handle each together.
**
First let me warn you to have Kleenex ready when you read this. Paul is very sick and has been for a while. It is really hard to read about Doug’s pain on the prospect of losing his dear brother.
Doug is not perfect, but nearly so and he is the perfect man for Carson.
Carson’s heart is always in the right place even when he blunders, he does so with his eyes on the right path.
The smexy times were very steamy and I really loved how Doug and Carson resolved Carson’s body image concerns.
I loved this book right up until the end. It was moving, captivating, tender and lovely. My only problem was the epilogue. The couple gets a strong HFN probably HEA, but I really, really wanted it to be cemented in firmly. I was also really uncomfortable with how Doug left things with Carson’s mother. I needed them to get past their issues.
But – I wouldn’t let any of those concerns dissuade me from recommending this book wholeheartedly. I stayed up til 3 AM to finish this book, it held me so captive.
DW Marchwell is an excellent writer. He really knows how to demonstrate tenderness and generosity of spirit. He combines humor with the underlying sadness in this book so that though the reader might tearing up one moment she is laughing the next. This is a lovely book that anyone with a functioning heart should read.
With the battle of Egypt behind them, Alec and Cronin are enjoying the thrill of new love. Though fate doesn’t wait long before throwing them back into the world of weird.
They know Alec’s blood is special, though its true purpose still eludes them. And given Alec’s inability to be changed into a vampire, Cronin is free to drink from him at will. But the ramifications of drinking such powerful blood starts a ripple effect.
With the help of Jorge, a disturbing vampire-child with the gift of foresight, Alec and Cronin face a new kind of war. This time their investigations lead them to the borders of China and Mongolia—but it’s not what lies in the pits beneath that worries Alec.
It’s the creator behind it all.
In the underground depths of China, amidst a war with the Terracotta Army, they will find out just what the Key is, and what Alec means to the vampire world.
Review
Wow – oh wow! Alec is back and he and Cronin are so – so – so hot together!
Alec and Cronin face Genghis Kahn and the Terracotta Army as well as some others… to be named later… for the answers they need to save the world as well as to save Alec’s eternity.
Something strange is going on in Alec’s physiology that makes him and Cronin insatiable for each other. They can’t bear to be separated for even a moment. They need one another desperately and succumbing to their need has an unpredictable and sometimes terrifying result.
They must answer riddles and dig deep to find the truth that will set them free, but once they do – WOW – is it ever an amazing ride.
I really, really, really loved this sequel to Cronin’s Key. It was very satisfying and action packed as well as amazingly touching and sweet.
There was a lot of hot smexy times, though many were only hinted at. What I really loved was the desperate need and devotion the two shared. It was very passionate and all consuming and really drove you to keep turning the page to seek the solution along beside Alec, Cronin and the team they assembled.
I loved the new powers we see in the other vampires as well as the crazy interesting Jorge and all he has to “show” Alec about his future.
This was a terrific sequel and in my opinion an even better book than the first. I highly recommend it and the series … well and the author!
5 of 5 hearts
PS When oh when do we get these and other NR Walker books on audio? Soon isn’t soon enough!
Being a witch doesn’t mean one can beat the devil forever.
Jeffrey Overton, unemployed IT professional turned poker player, pushes his luck once too often and runs afoul of the host of an illegal card club. The man sent to escort Jeffrey to a “meeting” about his supernatural winning streak arrives at Jeffrey’s crappy North Portland apartment, lock-picking tools in hand and a charm to block Jeffrey’s magick.
Head muscle for said host, Mike Wells, is a Daisy from Daisyville. He isn’t a witch. What he lacks in magickal talent he makes up for in brawn, so he doesn’t expect the guy he’s after to overpower him. But once Mike renders Jeffrey helpless, he’d rather seduce him than bring him in.
Jeffrey and Michael ditch the “meeting” and end up hunting some of the same people they ran from, trying to get Jeffrey back into his own body. And that’s only part of the adventure. The pair travel halfway across the country on the quietest road trip in history and find missing people, empire-building witches, and maybe even the families they’d both thought lost to them.
Excerpt: If Sal had sent someone after me, a short trip up to Seattle might be a good idea, maybe even BC. That called for some new clothes, so I grabbed my battered gym bag—my quick escape kit—and was almost home free when the kitchen door burst open. It would’ve been dumb to turn off the light when the goomba first went to work on the lock—I can’t see any better in the dark than your average Daisy, not when I’m blocked. Once that massive body filled the doorway, I wished I had. Wished I’d done something. He hesitated, barely a moment, and I bolted for the front door. He grabbed me before I made it out of the kitchen and pinned both of my arms to my sides. It wouldn’t work, I knew that, but I still tried to burn his hands. All I needed was enough time to—fuck, is he laughing? “Give it up, pretty boy. You’re blocked.” The big man pushed me against the wall face-first and pulled both hands behind my back. “Hey, wait a sec, big guy. Let’s talk about this. I can—” He pushed me flat against the wall, and the rest of that sentence disappeared in the rush of air he squeezed from my lungs. I couldn’t help being turned on, even though pain and domination usually aren’t my thing. Neither are bears, but underneath the padding he felt nice and solid, leaning full against me. He tightened a plastic zip tie around my wrists with shaking hands. And then he held me there.
Charley Descoteaux has always heard voices. She was relieved to learn they were fictional characters, and started writing when they insisted daydreaming just wasn’t good enough. In exchange, they’ve agreed to let her sleep once in a while. Charley grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area during a drought, and found her true home in the soggy Pacific Northwest. She has survived earthquakes, tornadoes, and floods, but couldn’t make it through one day without stories.
Michael May is losing it. Long ago, he joined the Metropolitan Police to escape his father’s tyranny and protect people like himself. Now his father is dead, and he’s been fired for punching a suspect. Afraid of his own rage, he returns to Trowchester—and to his childhood home, with all its old fears and memories. When he meets a charming, bohemian bookshop owner who seems to like him, he clings tight.
Fintan Hulme is an honest man now. Five years ago, he retired from his work as a high class London fence and opened a bookshop. Then an old client brings him a stolen book too precious to turn away, and suddenly he’s dealing with arson and kidnapping, to say nothing of all the lies he has to tell his friends. Falling in love with an ex-cop with anger management issues is the last thing he should be doing.
Finn thinks Michael is incredibly sexy. Michael knows Finn is the only thing that still makes him smile. But in a relationship where cops and robbers are natural enemies, that might not be enough to save them. Review
Fintan is an ex-fence who lost his lover 5 years ago and re-made himself as an honest bookseller in Trowchester.
Michael is an ex-cop with anger issues who is divorced and has moved back to Trowchester to exorcise the figurative ghost of his abusive father now that he’s died and left him a house.
Together these guys are real. They are authentic and real and sincere… just real. They both have some issues to overcome, and they do a lot of personal growth in this novel. I also really liked that nothing came along to “fix” them – not their relationship or anything else – but they made realistic progress as they learned new lessons.
There wasn’t a lot of sex in this book, but what was there was very hot. The two have a lot of chemistry and the intimate scenes are very well written.
Alex Beecroft is a new author to me, and I am so very impressed with her work. Her writing is lyrical and poetic without being flowery and pedantic. I found myself bookmarking and highlighting many phrases. An example: “Sure, sex was a fine thing, but a fight at the end of which the pair of you were more lovingly entangled than ever, that was closer to being one flesh, one soul, than anything else.”
I found the supporting story – the non-romance part- to be engaging and moving as well. Michael finds a homeless girl to help, helping him to deal with some of his past insecurities. Finn struggles against getting pulled back into his old life and has to make some amazingly tough decisions that ultimately set him free.
All in all a great read from a new author and a happy beginning to a new series!
Robbie MacIntyre manages a small post office in the old Station House on the outskirts of sleepy Barton Hartshourn northwest of London. He’s stunned when the owner, Maggie, a close friend, bequeaths him not only the post office, but also Station House.
The rest of her estate is left to an American writer, Jason Young, and when he moves to the village, Robbie is thrown by the attraction he has for the man who has more of a claim on the Station House than he does.
Then there is a box that holds several rare first editions and a cookbook. Only when the secrets of the ingredients in a particular recipe are finally revealed does everything begin to make sense, and a love cut short seventy years earlier is finally discovered.
Review
Robbie and Jason are thrown together by a magical cookbook and a “fairy grandmother”. Robbie is alone in a small town in Britain, Jason comes from America to get some background for his book.
Their love story is a quietly, sweet, almost old-fashioned one. With the British countryside as background and all that that entails.
It’s short, maybe too short, but as always RJ Scott writes so well that we are assured to get a warm feeling from her stories, even in brevity.
I wish that there was more character development and maybe some more smexy times, but it was an enjoyable, light, fun read.
Tiernan Guaire was exiled from the Fae Realm a century and a half ago for his brother’s murder. His soul torn in half, he lives by his vows—never to trust, never to love. And if he can only be whole by finding and loving the human with the other half of his soul? He’s content to live broken and half-souled.
Kevin Almstead’s future, the career he’s worked for as long as he can remember, has been taken away by a vote of the partners at his law firm. Chance brings him to Purgatory, the hottest all-male nightclub in Washington, D.C., to a meeting with a Fae, with long blond hair, ice-blue eyes, and a smile promising pleasures he’s never dreamed of. But there’s no such thing as chance.
But Tiernan isn’t the only one to find Kevin in Purgatory. The most ancient enemy of the Fae race sees in the handsome lawyer a way to destroy the world from which it, too, was exiled. And only the strength of a true SoulShare bond can keep it from what it seeks.
GALE FORCE
Conall Dary is the mightiest mage born to the Fae race in more than two thousand years, ever since the Sundering of the Fae and human worlds. But that power condemns him to an untouched, virginal life—sex calls to power, and his power is enough to drain the magick, the life, from his entire world. Exiled from the Realm for refusing to turn his talent to service a Noble’s petty revenge fantasies, his soul is torn in two and his magickal gifts blocked.
Josh LaFontaine is a gifted tattoo artist with a heart of gold. While doing a good turn for an ex-boyfriend, he’s stunned when a gorgeous red-haired twink appears out of nowhere at his feet during New York City’s Pride march.
The Marfach was thwarted in its first attempt to capture a Fae. But when a terrible accident separates Conall and Josh before they bond, it’s a race to see who finds the mage first, the monster who will use him as a weapon to destroy his race, or his SoulShare.
DEEP PLUNGE
More than two thousand years ago, the healer Lochlann Doran was the first Fae to leave the Realm after the Sundering of the Fae and human worlds. After centuries of wandering the human world, seeking his SoulShare, he has spent all his magick, and lost all his hope.
Garrett Templar is the star pole dancer at Purgatory, the hottest gay nightclub in Washington, D.C. If his past hadn’t taught him the futility of hope, his present surely would; HIV-positive since age 18, his illness has suddenly and inexplicably mutated into drug-impervious AIDS.
A SoulShare bond with Garrett may give Lochlann back his magick, his gift of healing. But it also might kill him. And if he survives the return of his magick, the Marfach and its host are waiting to use the dancer as bait in a deadly trap. Only an impossible love can save them both.
And everyone knows Fae don’t love….
FIRESTORM
Rian Sheridan is a foundling, a Falls Road corner boy, whose world went up in flames beside an Orangemen’s bonfire of hatred last July the Twelfth. A pain he barely remembers is a siren’s call, taunting him, daring him to find its source and lose himself to it. And he searches in the only place he knows, the S&M underground of Belfast.
Cuinn an Dearmad is the last surviving Fae Loremaster. He’s just seen the beginning of the death of the Realm, the home of the Fae race and their haven from the twisted evil of the Marfach. The only hope of saving the Realm starts with finding the Prince Royal of Fire he himself stole from the cradle, sent through the Pattern, and lost in the human world, many years ago. He has a few guesses about where that hope ends, none of which bode well for him.
Rian and Cuinn are an impossible pairing, two SoulShared Fae. Any two Fae strike sparks, but these two Fae are an explosive combination. Drawn into an escalating series of sexual collisions, their passion will save—or destroy—two worlds.
Fingertips stroked the back of his hand, gently, possessively, and Kevin fought to suppress a shiver. Not hard enough, though, because there was that smile again. A lazy, sensual smile that absolutely should not be on the lips of anyone he hadn’t spent at least twenty-four hours having mind-blowing sex with. Which short list did not include anyone of this seductive blond’s gender.
Yet.
As if he’d heard Kevin’s thought, the man arched that ringed eyebrow; the grip on his hand tightened, a thumb slid around to stroke his palm. “You don’t even know why you’re here, do you?”
“And I suppose you do?” His voice came out gruff, harsh; the air thrummed around the two of them, tingling with a dark electricity.
The blond chuckled, a sound like warm honey. “You’re buttoned down tight, lanan. And you came in here because…”
Shit.
“Secretly, you want someone…”
Damn, damn, DAMN…
“Someone like me…”
Long thick blond hair. Black leather jacket, gleaming with a sheen like melted butter in the flickering light from the bar. White muscle shirt. Jeans first painted on and then sliced half off. God damn.
“…to unbutton you.”
s majored in creative writing, back when Respectable Colleges didn’t offer such a major, so she had to design it herself. Her university boasted one professor willing to teach creative writing, he being a British surrealist who went nuts over students writing dancing bananas in the snow but did not take well to high fantasy. She graduated Phi Beta Kappa at the age of nineteen despite him, sent off her first short story to an anthology being assembled by an author she idolized, got shot down in flames, and found other things to do, such as going to law school, ballet dancing (at more or less the same time), and nightclub singing, for the next thirty years or so, until her stories started whispering to her. Now she’s a legal editor and the mother of a budding filmmaker, and is busily wedding her love of myth and legend to her passion for m/m romance.
Blurb
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