Carter Schunk is a dedicated police officer with a difficult past and a big heart. When he’s called to a domestic disturbance, he finds a fatally injured woman, and a child, Alex, who is in desperate need of care. Child Services is called, and the last man on earth Carter wants to see walks through the door. Carter had a fling with Donald a year ago and found him as cold as ice since it ended.
Donald (Ice) Ickle has had a hard life he shares with no one, and he’s closed his heart to all. It’s partly to keep himself from getting hurt and partly the way he deals with a job he’s good at, because he does what needs to be done without getting emotionally involved. When he meets Carter again, he maintains his usual distance, but Carter gets under his skin, and against his better judgment, Donald lets Carter guilt him into taking Alex when there isn’t other foster care available. Carter even offers to help care for the boy.
Donald has a past he doesn’t want to discuss with anyone, least of all Carter, who has his own past he’d just as soon keep to himself. But it’s Alex’s secrets that could either pull them together or rip them apart—secrets the boy isn’t able to tell them and yet could be the key to happiness for all of them.
Review
Carter is the police partner of Red who we met in book one, Fire and Water. Donald is a social worker who has hooked up with Carter in the past, but walked away from him before they got started as a couple.
Carter rescues a boy, Alex, from the site of a domestic disturbance only to find out he’s been abused and is now an orphan. Donald is called in to help place him in the system, but both men fall in love with Alex and have a hard time letting him go.
Meanwhile, Carter knows Donald is more than his icy façade and wants to break through to the real man he’s had glimpses of before.
Donald is guarding his heart and his secrets but can’t help but be enthralled by both Alex and Carter.
In the end – when an amazingly convenient solution presents itself – we see the formation of a new family and a very HEA.
**
I thought this was better than the first book (and I liked the first book) and I really liked Carter and Alex and the story they shared. I thought Donald was a little harder to like and found his reluctance to share frustrating.
Overall it was a good book and I recommend it to fans of Andrew Grey and fans of men with kids stories.
Kai Hayashi, heir to the earth dragon clan, already lost his mother to the rebels threatening to overthrow the council. When his grandfather suggests an arranged mating with not one, but two men, each with certain skills to help protect Kai, the young dragon prince doesn’t exactly need persuading.
Retrieval expert and leopard shifter Jace Dashwood has worked for the Hayashi family for a year now, helplessly in love with his employer’s grandson. Kai is all the things that Jace could never be, innocent and gentle. He had thought to keep his feelings to himself until the dragon king made him an offer too good to be true.
Having worked as a mercenary for too long, bear shifter Ted Graves finally decided to put down roots. He thought that joining a mating agency meant he was going to get the normal life he thought he had been craving but instead he got an offer he couldn’t refuse.
Review
The Happily Ever After Mating agency is designed for shifters who haven’t found their mates and want to settle down. In this case Kai’s uncle uses it to help find Kai the right mate to protect Kai as well as mate him.
Jace has already been working with Kai’s family and his uncle identifies Jace as a mate/protector right away.
Ted is tired of being footloose so he signs up to the mating agency and is pleased to hear from Kai’s family. He’s a bit surprised to find out it’s to be a three way mating and that his alternate duty will be protection but after meeting both men he’s very willing to continue with the plan.
Jace and Kai have been mutually crushing on one another for the last year, but not acting on it. When their third joins them they all acknowledge a mutual attraction that sets them on fire.
In addition to the immediate bonding that takes place, there is danger. Someone wants to take Kai out of the picture and replace him as the future dragon king. There is also the pesky little thing about Kai maybe being more than “just” a dragon shifter…
**
This is one of those surprise reads that you stumble upon every now and then. (I have to admit a weakness for cheesy shifter romances – the ones where the plot is thin but the sex is hot and the storyline light and usually full of fun. Nothing too angsty and nothing too stressful.) I thought this was one of those, but it is surprisingly more. There is a rich story line and compelling drama but also some real emotion and depth to the love story as well.
I thought the ménage was very believable and though I could feel bad for Ted at first- he seems odd man out to the couple of Jace and Kai – it was quickly made clear that he was integral and equal and definitely well loved.
I really enjoyed this and the others in this series and highly recommend them!
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…
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.
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!
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.
The Rebuilding Year, Book 2
After spending the first part of his life chasing pretty girls, love has finally come to Ryan in the form of John, a tall, lanky, red-headed landscape architect with wide shoulders and a five-o’clock shadow.
For the first time in his life, love feels easy. Hell, he even ran into a burning building for John and his son, and he’d do it again if he had to. But telling his father and brothers “I’m gay. I’ve met a man”? That’s a bumpy ride he’s not looking forward to.
For John, loving Ryan is as natural as breathing. Now if only the rest of his life would fall into place. Dealing with his teen son is complicated enough, but with his ex-wife causing trouble and his daughter wanting to move in, John’s house—and his relationship with Ryan—threaten to split at the seams.
Would one month without a new surprise knocking him upside the heart be asking too much? If the sound of Fate’s laughter is any indication, the answer must be yes… Product Warnings Contains two formerly straight guys learning to navigate the gay-guy waters, sometimes without a paddle. Plus six kinds of family ensuring nothing comes easy.
Review
First, this is the sequel to The Rebuilding Year, and you must have read it before for this lovely novel to mean anything to you.
We left off with Ryan just telling his dad he’d met a man… This is the story of how to build a life with someone AFTER the initial blush of romance.
And that’s just it – it takes work, assembly. John and Ryan have to work at their relationship. They have to battle John’s crazy (seriously crazy) ex-wife Cynthia for John’s kids and their sanity. They have to battle Ryan’s homophobic brother and his Dad’s less than warm welcome. Ryan has to continually battle his pain.
What they don’t do is battle each other. That was a really nice touch. Sometimes – in sequels – the couple separates and we have to fight to bring them back together again, almost like a new story. In this case John and Ryan’s love for each other is strong and pervasive. The world throws them curve balls and they work as a team to hit them out of the park.
I loved the emerging personalities in John’s kids. Torrie is a force to be reckoned with and I loved her teen-age angst and thought it felt very authentic.
This wasn’t as “hot” as The Rebuilding Year – not that there isn’t plenty of great sex – there is – but the sexual tension was less and the book focused more on the emotional growth of the relationship at the same time the couple “experiments” with their newfound sex life.
The Rebuilding Year is one of my all time favorite books and it set an extremely high bar. I loved catching up with the guys and learning more about their lives. Kaje Harper is an amazing writer and she crafted another excellent story here. For me, it wasn’t quite as amazing as it’s predecessor, but it was still wonderful and a must read for her fans and fans of the first book.
Blurb
