SUMMARY: It started simple: Ondrej Kovac marries Archie Katsaros so Ondrej can stay in the US, away from his judgmental family in eastern Europe. Archie marries Ondrej in exchange for the money to bail out his failing company. It’s a fraud neither man is convinced he can pull off.
But as Archie introduces Ondrej to New York society and Ondrej proves his skill in the office, they start to discover a connection between them. Can they overcome the rocky foundation their relationship was built on, meddling immigration agents, gossip columnists determined to out their deception, and an aggressive executive set on selling Archie’s company out from under him? Only if they can prove to each other their love is worth fighting for.
REVIEW: I wanted to like this story. I truly did. I know it’s a plot that’s been done to death but I was thinking that it would have that certain something if it had a LGBT twist to it.
That was not the case with this story. It wasn’t horrible, but it wasn’t as good as it could’ve been either. You have a broke tycoon and a rich foreigner who’s about to be deported. Each man has something the other one desperately needs. So, people in Archie’s camp that they get married.
Okay, sounds okay but the execution of the story was very…bland. I think that if you’re going to do a storyline that’s been done as much as this one has, it has to be something fresh, hot and new thrown in to make it pop.
The book wasn’t poorly written. I liked the characters, the dialogue was okay, but the plot and storyline has been done to death and there wasn’t anything in the book to make it really sparkle. It just didn’t WOW me and that’s sad because I really, really wanted to like this book.
Now, I will admit that the ending was kind of okay but I had to wait until then end to get a part that was simply ‘okay’. I think that with a trope this common, there could’ve been just a tad more spice added. It’s not a bad read; it just could’ve been better.
SUMMARY: Randall Morgan, youngest son of one of Seattle’s wealthiest families, rejected his family’s money to live free of their control and pursue his career as a photographer. To make ends meet, Randall does erotic photography and massage—a secret he keeps from his family so he can remain a part of his young niece’s life. But the price of that relationship is high, and Randall is once more slipping under his family’s thumb.
Noah Carroll is the spokesperson for the Seattle Humane Society, and the city holds a special place in his heart. When fate intervenes during a pet adoption, Noah finds himself face-to-face with his first love—Randall.
While Noah and Randall are not the teenagers they once were, the flame of a first kiss long ago draws them together. Their romance is beginning to grow, but someone is out to destroy Randall and expose all he keeps hidden.
When secrets and rumors thrust Randall into the public eye, his relationship with Noah isn’t the only thing that comes under threat.
REVIEW: I got this book not really expecting to like it. Not because the author isn’t good at telling a story but because it’s a storyline that’s been done numerous times before. I’ve read quite a few of them and I actually opened this book expecting more of the same old prince pretending to be pauper type of story.
Needless to say that I was presently surprised by what I actually got! Brandon Witt did an excellent job of telling a story that’s been told countless times and making it fresh and and interesting. I was expecting Randall to be the prince in the castle who was slumming, but what I got was a guy who genuinely wanted to make it on his own; to have an identity completely separated and independent from that pretentious clan of his. His character was quite likable.
Noah is my kind of people. He’s an animal lover, kind and just an all around nice guy. He and Randall were old flames years ago and an chance meeting put then in each other’s path. It’s then they realize that the old flames were still burning with them both and they went from there, rekindling their relationship.
Of course, it’s not going to be a smooth ride to their HEA ending. Their journey to happiness is becomes a bumpy road when some own threatens to expose the secret and unravel the life Randall has worked so hard to retain and maintain. Not only that, it threatens to destroy the growing romance with Noah. It is then you truly see the strength of the bond these men share. The problems that arise that would tear a less than strong couple apart brings these two closer together.
I can say enough good things about this book. The characters, storyline, dialogue, and technical aspects of the book were wonderful. Needless to say that it exceeded my expectations.
SUMMARY: Life for Dexter J. Daley has never been easy, but he’s always found a way to pick himself back up with a smile on his face. Taken from his home, and the arms of his boyfriend and THIRDS partner, Sloane Brodie, Dex finds himself in a situation as mysterious and lethal as the Therian interrogating him. Dex learns what he’s secretly believed all along: his parents’ death wasn’t an accident.
Discovering the whole truth about John and Gina Daley’s homicide sets off a series of events that will change Dex and Sloane’s lives forever. As buried secrets rise to the surface and new truths are revealed, Dex and Sloane’s love for each other is put to the test, with more than their relationship on the line. If traversing the waters of murder and secret government agencies wasn’t enough, something inexplicable has been happening to Dex—and nothing will ever be the same.
REVIEW: This is the seventh book in this wonderful, action packed series featuring Destructive Delta. Dex is taken and his kidnapping unlocks the mystery and revealed the truth surrounding his parent’s murder. This revelation not only changes Dex and Sloane’s loves forever but strangely gives Dex and Maddox a bit of closure.
We learn quite a bit more about who’s behind the kidnapping, more about the facility where Sloane, Ash and other First Gen. Therians were experimented on. As the story unfolds, even more secrets and plots are revealed. There is so much that goes on in this book, basically a lot of Dex’s questions are answered and the truth of it all hits him hard. But I think that deep down, Dex on some level knew that the story surrounding his parent’s deaths was a lie.
This book is tamer than the six previous books. Tame in the way of seeing Dex and Sloane in their home; their everyday home life. This is a side of Sloane that I truly enjoyed. Yes, these men are constantly out fighting crime, being shot at, being attacked, explosives and being the super elite team but there’s more to their lives than that. You see the more domestic side to these two. You can tell that Sloane and Dex are extremely happy together.
You also get a glimpse into the love lives of the other team members: Seb and Hudson (I am most eager to read their story) and even Sarge. I am also looking forward to Austin and Zach’s stories.
There’s not a lot of sex in the books but that is totally fine as the storyline, dialog, plot and character development more than makes up for it. This book, this series is absolutely magnificent and will keep you enthralled from the very first page to the very last. Oh, and the covers are to die for!
SUMMARY: Five years ago, everything went wrong. Braden Kirk and Rafe Jessen’s long-term relationship started unraveling. They stopped talking, fears mounted, then Braden walked in on Rafe and another man, completely misreading the situation. Without giving Rafe a chance to explain, Braden walks out. Out of their home, their relationship, and the game development company they started together in college.
After months of therapy to deal with the attempted rape Braden walked in on, Rafe begins to understand that his dominant tendencies in the bedroom aren’t a bad thing and that Braden’s submission is likely what scared his partner into silence. But Rafe isn’t ready to let go of the man he loves more than life itself. He arranges for himself and Braden to end up on the same charity cruise, knowing Braden won’t let his phobia—terror of vast, deep waters—rule him.
With a plan and twenty-eight days, Rafe is determined to get Braden back, make him see there’s nothing wrong with being submissive, and find a way to get Braden to stay with him when they get home to LA. REVIEW: Umm. This is a case of a story’s blurb sounding a lot better than the actual book reads. That’s not to say this book was poorly written just poorly executed.
The story starts out at a snail’s pace and remains in that pace throughout the story. You know that both Braden or Rafe hasn’t recovered from their breakup several years prior and still love each other. You just never really find out exactly why they broke up; not until more than halfway through the story. And when I did finally get to the reason behind the split, I was left with a ‘is-that-ALL?!’ feeling. The conflict felt contrived considering the amount of angst these men are experiencing in the story. It just fell flat for me.
The story wasn’t bad or poorly written. The editing was lovely, the characters were well developed, the dialogue not bad—if a little on the dull side. The story just…drags. The constant…avoidance, this feeling that you never really get to real heart of what went wrong between these two. Yes, you find out what caused
‘The Big Split’ but you’re left with a sense of something more that went on, something that’s left out that neither man will discuss and you never find out.
It was just unbelievable that this misunderstanding can be the sole cause of Braden’s decision to walk out on a business partnership and relationship. And then to have absolutely no contact with each other for years? If anything they still had a business relationship so you would think that it wouldn’t be that easy to just not have any contact with the person that you’re in business with. It just didn’t make sense and it felt contrived
So, Braden’s family comes up with this big plan to get Braden on this cruise and Rafe comes up with this plan to get Braden to him and then…nothing. They do this weird tap dance around each other that causes the story to drag along even slower than it already is.
I also wasn’t buying Rafe as a Dom. He came off as needy and lacking confidence. Maybe if he was a bit more confident and or comfortable in his abilities as a Dom the story could’ve been a lot more interesting than what it was. As it was, it looked like something tossed in to try to make it more interesting? Everything in the story was just bland and that’s unfortunate because the author had really good ingredients to make this into something delicious.
SUMMARY: Noah Trevelyan has lost his moorings. Disowned over his sexuality as a teenager, he hasn’t been back to his home on the Outer Banks since his fisherman father kicked him out. But when he returns for the Old Man’s funeral, he discovers his father left him the house and boat in his will. Noah must choose whether to stay or go, but he won’t be alone. There’s Ian, working to overcome the emotional scars left by a domineering ex-boyfriend, and Ty, a cheerful housekeeper who’s struggling to take care of his Alzheimer’s-stricken aunt. There’s Joshua too, running from the destruction of his old life, and Gabriel, who was once beaten and left for dead, and doesn’t know how to survive on his own.
Will they find in each other the strength and courage to keep living—and learn, together, how to love again? A polyamorous relationship is the last thing any of them expected to find in the Outer Banks, but it might be what they need most, and it might even be their redemption—if they can keep their group from breaking apart under the pressure.
REVIEW: I’m a huge fan of ménage stories; those types of relationships always fascinated me. I’ve read many a ménage story by never have I read one featuring five men at once. I went in not really knowing what to expect. How was the dynamics going to play out? How does a relationship actually with that many people in it? I was expecting a big ole orgy type of deal and that would’ve been fine.
That is not what you get in this book. What you end up with is a story about five men, who love and cherish each other. You read about a relationship that has its ups and downs, good times and bad but these men weather the storms and come out stronger and close because of it. These men were in a relationship TOGETHER and even though it was so many of them, NONE of them were left out. Yes, each man had a different dynamic but you never at anytime get the sense that one man loves another more than the other. What you ended up with was a beautifully executed story that could’ve gone awry.
Yes, there was group sex but it was tastefully done; it wasn’t written as any type of orgy or anything of the sort. The author did a pretty good job with this and I must say that I was pleasantly surprised.
The abuse of a little boy turns a community against a loving gay couple, and nobody comes out of it unscathed. Sean and Austin have the perfect life: new love, a riverfront home, security. Their love for one another is only multiplied when Sean’s eight-year-old son, Jason, visits on the weekends. And then their perfect world shatters. Jason goes missing. When the boy turns up days later, he’s been so horribly abused he’s lost the power to speak. Immediately small town minds turn to the boy’s gay father and his lover as the likely culprits. What was a warm, welcoming community becomes a lynching party out for blood. As Sean and Austin struggle to stay together amidst innuendo, the very real threat of Sean losing the son he loves emerges. Yet the true villain is much closer to home, intent on ensuring the boy’s muteness is permanent.
Kimi’s thoughts:
Sean and Austin’s story unfolds with the reader becoming acquainted with just how storybook perfect their life together is. Even the fact that Sean’s son Jason is only there for weekends is marred only by the sad fact that his mother is angry and reactive towards Sean, never having forgiven him for coming out as gay and upending the life she thought she had with him. Shelley has since remarried, but that merely adds another dimension to just how imperfect her life really is- her new husband not only is homophobic, but is rather fond of drinking.
When Jason goes missing while Shelley is at work and her husband was watching him, Sean, Austin, and Shelley’s lives are turned upside down. Things go from bad to horrific when a local hermit stumbles over the boy in the woods- badly injured and unable to speak a single word. Suspicion is cast first upon the hermit who found him- Junior Parsons, then upon Sean himself. The town gossips are having a field day and the police are determined to solve the case, no matter what.
You’d think the police wanting to find the person who’d raped a child would be a good thing, but when prejudices and innuendo interfere in an already delicate situation, you get a powder keg. Sean and Austin’s relationship is torn apart, while Shelley reevaluates how she’s treated Sean, who she knows to be a good man and a doting father. If I have one complaint, it’s this: Sean loves so Austin very, very much, so why does he push him away at the very time he needs someone to lean on? I understand he’s gone off the rails, but I honestly don’t see the whole pushing away thing being so plausible in the way it unfolded here.
Otherwise, it’s a very well written drama that kept my attention, though I did guess who the evil monster was before it was revealed. That didn’t take away from the story though I did blink a bit hard over the whole guy at the river sex scenario, as it felt rather out of place and at first, I wasn’t entirely sure what had actually just happened. I will confess that reading this left me feeling raw- not just because of what happened to young Jason, but the sheer volume of unlikeable people in the book. I admit I even found Sean hard to relate to a lot of the time due to the way he suddenly distanced himself from Austin. Still, it was a good read that made me stop and think (and life is full of people we don’t like much, if at all, so ::shrug::).
Hello! Thank you for joining me at the Kimi-chan Experience so I can talk about my new book, ‘Five Times My Best Friend Kissed Me, and One Time I Kissed Him First’.
I couldn’t let this blog tour happen without talking about the deep, resonating pain of writing childhood. So let’s get to that!
I’ve been applying myself to the task of writing creatively for about half my life now. In the past five years that I’ve been publishing with Dreamspinner Press I’ve written a whole range of different stories, but I’ve never really ventured into the topic of childhood.
And with good reason. I really hate writing kids.
That’s not to say I don’t like real-life kids—I do. And when I can dip in and out of scenes with children that can be fun too, probably because I can put the child aside at any time and move on to grown up conversations again!
In this novel, I knew I would have to go to the point in time when Evan and Scott first meet and start the friendship that would last their whole lives. I know some people meet those lifelong friends in college, or even later in life, but for this story it was inevitable that I would revisit the summer of1994.
As in the rest of the novel, this section is told from Evan’s point-of-view, so I had to get into the head of a seven year old American boy, which for a thirty year old English woman isn’t that easy. I think I probably did more research for this one section of the book than I did for anything else! I wanted to know what shows the boys would be watching on TV, what games they’d be playing, what was the most popular Christmas gift the year before. Not all of that made it into the story, but all those little tidbits of information helped me find that all-important mindset.
There’s something undeniably special about the bonds of friendship that are formed in childhood. I think it has something to do with knowing that person has seen you change in fundamental ways, and they still like you afterwards. If you can survive puberty, High School, going to college and coming back again, and still love each other? That’s something to hold onto. And something I really wanted to make a central theme of ‘Five Times’.
Here’s a little excerpt of the boys as kids – I hope you enjoy it!
*
“Mom!” Evan yelled as he ran into the house. “Mom, Mom, Moooooomm!”
“Yes, darling,” she said, appearing from the kitchen with an apron around her waist, floury hands, and an exasperated expression.
Evan skidded to a stop and frowned. “What are you making?”
“You had a question for me?”
“Oh. Yeah. Can I go to Scott’s?”
Evan’s mom turned around and walked back into the kitchen.
He followed her, hoping the floury hands meant she’d been making cookies. On the counter, a pie was cooling. Even better.
“Who’s Scott?”
“Is that peach pie?” he asked hopefully.
“Evan King,” she admonished. “One thing at a time. Who is Scott?”
“He’s my best friend,” Evan said.
“Uh-huh. Andy was your best friend last week.”
“He’s my second best friend now.”
“Is that so,” she said in a way that wasn’t a question.
Without waiting to be asked, Evan went to the kitchen sink and washed his hands. He’d been playing outside and knew his mom wouldn’t let him have pie unless he washed up.
“Scott has a whole bunch of action figures,” Evan said, drying his hands on his shorts. There wasn’t a towel anywhere he could see. “And he let me play Hulk even though Hulk is his favorite too. He’s got loads of them. Wolverine and Punisher and Iron Man and Spider- Man and Captain America and—”
“Would you like some pie, Evan?”
“Yes, please. Then can I go to Scott’s? His mom said it was okay.”
“Where does Scott live?” she asked as she cut a nice-sized piece of pie—it was peach—and put it in his favorite dish.
“Dunno.”
“Okay. Where did you meet him? At the playground?”
“Yep.” Evan hopped up onto one of the tall stools in the kitchen so he could eat. “The one I’m allowed to go to. He said I could go home with him and his mom then, but I said I had to ask you first.”
“Good boy,” she said and ruffled his hair. “Tell you what, when you go over to the playground tomorrow, I’ll walk with you and see if Scott’s mom is there. Then we can arrange for you to go over some time.”
Evan nodded, his mouth full of pie. “Okay.”
Blurb
When you realize you want to marry your best friend at age six, life should follow a pretty predictable path, right? Maybe not.
As a kid, Evan King thought Scott Sparrow was the most amazing person he’d ever met. At seventeen, his crush runs a little deeper, and nothing seems simple anymore. Scott is more interested in football and girls than playing superheroes, and Evan’s attention is focused on getting into art school. A late-night drunken kiss is something to be forgotten, not obsessed over for the next ten years.
When life suddenly brings them back together, it doesn’t take much for the flame Evan carried for Scott nearly all his life to come roaring back, and Evan discovers that life sometimes has a strange way of coming full circle.
Anna Martin is from a picturesque seaside village in the south- west of England and now lives in the slightly arty, slightly quirky city of Bristol. After spending most of her childhood making up stories, she studied English Literature at university before attempting to turn her hand as a professional writer.
Apart from being physically dependent on her laptop, Anna is enthusiastic about writing and producing local grassroots theater (especially at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, where she can be found every summer), going to visit friends in other countries, baking weird and wonderful sweets, learning to play the ukulele, and Ben & Jerry’s New York Super Fudge Chunk.
Anna claims her entire career is due to the love, support, pre-reading, and creative ass kicking provided by her best friend Jennifer. Jennifer refuses to accept responsibility for anything Anna has written.
Noah Trevelyan has lost his moorings. Disowned over his sexuality as a teenager, he hasn’t been back to his home on the Outer Banks since his fisherman father kicked him out. But when he returns for the Old Man’s funeral, he discovers his father left him the house and boat in his will. Noah must choose whether to stay or go, but he won’t be alone. There’s Ian, working to overcome the emotional scars left by a domineering ex-boyfriend, and Ty, a cheerful housekeeper who’s struggling to take care of his Alzheimer’s-stricken aunt. There’s Joshua too, running from the destruction of his old life, and Gabriel, who was once beaten and left for dead, and doesn’t know how to survive on his own.
Will they find in each other the strength and courage to keep living—and learn, together, how to love again? A polyamorous relationship is the last thing any of them expected to find in the Outer Banks, but it might be what they need most, and it might even be their redemption—if they can keep their group from breaking apart under the pressure.
Kimi’s Thoughts:
This was an interesting read. It’s a story about regrets and moving past trials life has made one endure, of forging a life that one wants to live. Five men arrive to take a ferry to a small island. One is returning for his father’s funeral, two others live and work on the island, and two more seem to be tourists. Of course, everything is not quite as it seems and when they miss the ferry and Noah remembers his father’s boat moored there, they are literally thrown together.
As each man interacts with the others, a definite spark happens. At first it seems to be mere lust- a bunch of guys letting off steam and enjoying themselves immensely. But just as their reasons for being on the island, and their lives before meeting, are complicated, so are the emotions. They quickly become entangled, each man unwilling to allow the others to soldier on alone. Before they know it, their hearts and minds are hopelessly ensnared. This adds another wrinkle, as the island is a small, conservative community. How they handle it, their relationship, and make peace with their lives makes for a great get away from it all read that is at times angsty and achingly emotional.
Enthusiastic, play-it-safe Kelly Sutton is an American intern at the Photonic Royal Society in New London. He’s been working on Project Mars for over a year, a mission kept so secret by the society even Kelly doesn’t know exactly what it is. What Kelly does know is his contribution to the task will benefit mankind, and that’s enough for him.
Kelly’s world turns upside down when concerns over his mentor’s behavior lead Kelly to investigate and stumble upon a wicked truth. What is supposed to be a project to advance human life turns out to be an endeavor capable of mass destruction. The terrifying reality forces Kelly to choose between looking the other way to keep his job, as he’s always done, or risking his career and even his life to do the right thing by saving the man who’s captured his heart.
Kimi’s thoughts:
This is a short at 73 pages but it packs a lot of story into those few pages. Kelly is living his dream, working for a multi-discipline scientific organization. The project known as Project Mars is a government project, one that is very hush hush. So much so that he nor anyone else seems to know much about it, each section being assigned only a piece of the research and the larger details left to higher ups with a need to know.
The day comes when Kelly’s curiosity leads him to stumble upon the truth and it places his life in very great danger unless he goes along with what has been requested of him. Even worse, it quickly becomes apparent that an ethical line has been crossed and he can either risk his career and life or stand by and see a very great wrong perpetuated. The fact that the wrong being committed centers on a man he has come to love makes the dilemma especially difficult.
Covering subjects such as government corruption, scientific oversight, and bio-engineering, this is a romantic tale that is out of the ordinary. It hits all the right buttons (despite my brain at first trying to figure out what photons had to do with it all, haha) and ends with a HEA that isn’t too saccharine. Definitely, a set of characters I’d love to revisit in a longer work.
Lane Hayes reveals the beautiful cover art of her next book titled A KIND OF ROMANCE coming out from Dreamspinner Press.
It releases on June 06, 2016.
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BLURB
Zeke Gulden is a ruthless Wall Street exec. His hard-edged, no non-sense attitude has served him well in the cutthroat business world, but less so in his personal life. When he finds out his ex-boyfriend cheated on him with a coworker, Zeke can’t let go – not until he finds a way to get even. However, his meddlesome father has other ideas. The new hire at the family-owned bagel store is somewhat colorful, but his dad is sure he’s the perfect man for Zeke.
Benny Ruggieri is a fiercely proud New Yorker who dreams of making it big as a costume designer in the theatre. In the meantime, he’s working two part-time jobs in the food biz. When his new boss sets him up with his successful son, Benny has zero expectations. If nothing else, he figures he can entertain himself by making the uptight businessman squirm. Instead, the two become unlikely friends with an inexplicable attraction they can’t ignore. Benny might be the one to help Zeke set aside his quest for revenge, if he’s willing to let go and forgive what he can’t forget… and give in to an unexpected kind of romance.
Lane Hayes is grateful to finally be doing what she loves best. Writing full time! It’s no secret Lane loves a good romance novel. An avid reader from an early age, she has always been drawn to a well-told love story with beautifully written characters. These days she prefers the leading roles both be men! Lane discovered the M/M genre a few years ago and was instantly hooked. Her first novel was a finalist in the 2013 Rainbow Awards and her third received an Honorable Mention in the 2014 Rainbow Awards. She loves travel, chocolate, and wine (in no particular order). Lane lives in Southern California with her amazing husband and the coolest yellow lab ever in an almost empty nest.
![KindofRomance[A]FS](https://creativemindpromotions.files.wordpress.com/2016/05/kindofromanceafs.jpg?w=683&resize=500%2C750)
