Some people might call Avery Babineaux a prick. He’s a hedgehog shifter from an old-money Louisiana family with a penchant for expensive shoes and a reputation for being a judgmental snob. His attitude is why he and his fated mate are estranged. Not that Avery cares. He doesn’t want to be mated to some blue-collar werewolf anyway. Or so he keeps telling himself.
No werewolf likes to be looked down upon, least of all Dylan Green. He doesn’t need a mate, especially not some snotty hedgehog who sneers at his custom motorcycle shop and calls him a grease monkey. But when Avery gets into trouble with a shady loan shark, Dylan can’t stand by and let him be hurt—whether he wants the brat or not.
Yet once Dylan steps into Avery’s world, he realizes there’s more to Avery than his prickly exterior, and that unexpected vulnerability calls to Dylan’s protective instincts. The sassy little hedgehog needs a keeper, and despite their horrible first impressions, Dylan starts to believe he might be the wolf for the job.
Review
Avery is a hedgehog shifter who has decided to leave his home territory of Louisiana and move to Oregon after falling in love with the state during college. Shifter law dictates that he must join the local wolf pack since Portland falls in that jurisdiction. Though his family has always looked down upon wolf shifters, Avery doesn’t care a bit, and happily joins the pack.
Avery finds his mate, a wolf, and in a drunken mistake, throws him over for not being “good enough”. Dylan is of course hurt, and somewhat glad, because he doesn’t ever want a mate anyway.
Two years go by, and the mates avoid each other at all costs. It isn’t until Avery ends up in trouble because of some gambling debts that they spend any significant time together.
Luckily, the time spent together, coupled with some important new ways of looking at things, shows them that they do have something in common and a future together.
**
This is a bit longer and a little different than the average “shifter” romance. For one, though the instant attraction is there, it isn’t acted upon until much later in the story. In addition, the side stories – Avery’s gambling problems first and later a missing female wolf shifter – take up a lot of the book.
The world building is excellent and the character development is also well done. I enjoyed the romance between Dylan and Avery but I was disappointed by how little time they spent together.
I wish we’d had more of them working on the crime solving together and had seen more of them developing their romance more.
The writing was really good and I am definitely interested in seeing more from this series.
Young Stevie Liston is diagnosed with autism, but is really an overwhelmed empath who mentally called out for help. Jesse McKinnon heard him in a dream from clear across the country, and that dream sent him on a six-year search to find Stevie. Once they meet, they think everything will work out and Jesse will help Stevie cope.
Stevie does improve immensely, but a disgruntled coworker of Jesse’s conspires with Stevie’s estranged but politically powerful father to keep Stevie and Jesse apart with trumped-up legal charges claiming Jesse sexually abused the boy. Jesse must watch helplessly as Stevie loses all the advances he’s made.
If it wasn’t for his growing relationship with his coworker Drew Ferguson, Jesse knows he wouldn’t have the strength to fight for his rights and Stevie’s future. Drew just might be the real thing, but with the very real possibility of serving jail time for a crime he didn’t commit, Jesse’s hopes for a future with Drew might be doomed
Pages or Words: 220 pages
Excerpt:
Prologue
I COULDN’T believe it. I stood in the doorway of a child’s room on the third floor of the Lynneville Center for Children with Autism after having been hastily hired and sent up here. At first I was shocked to see dozens of expertly drawn pictures of me taped up all over the walls. Then I noticed the four worried-looking adults in the room, their attention focused on the bed. In that bed, seemingly catatonic, was the very boy I’d been seeing in my dreams for almost six years.
I had been looking for Stevie all that time, but now that I had found him, I realized that until that moment I’d always had the smallest doubt that he was real—almost a hope that there wasn’t a suffering child who needed me, whom it had taken me so long to find. All my energy for six years had been focused on finding him, yet a niggling doubt had remained … until I stepped through that doorway.
“Stevie,” I whispered. “I finally found you.”
He didn’t move; he only blinked on reflex. He simply lay on the bed, so still, and stared at the ceiling. I knew I could help him. I moved to his side, nudging the doctor out of the way, and touched his hand.
“Come on, man. Come on back now.” I put my hand on his head, and Stevie immediately turned his head toward me. Though his eyes were still a little unfocused, he had no trouble recognizing me.
“Hi, Bear,” he said and reached out to be hugged, as he always had in my dreams.
It was so natural for Stevie to talk to me and hug me that it didn’t occur to me it might be strange for the staff gathered in Stevie’s room. They were suddenly doing the best imitations of goldfish I had ever seen. The doctor and the other man had comically wide eyes, while the two women looked almost ready to cry from shock or maybe just relief.
The older one, a lady in her forties, seemed to recognize my confusion. She came to stand close to me and said in a hushed voice, “That’s the first time we’ve ever heard him speak.”
He always could, of course.
He spoke to me all the time in my dreams.
He finally let go and looked at me. “Bear, you’re here? You’re really here?” His gaze scanned the room. “Not in the forest?”
“No, buddy.” I laid him back down and rubbed his hand as I spoke. “Not in the forest this time. We’re right here, in your room.”
Stevie yawned and looked exhausted.
“Go to sleep, big guy. I’m working at the center now, so I’ll be waiting for you when you wake up.”
He smiled and was asleep almost immediately.
By that time the staff’s shock had worn off and curiosity had set in with a vengeance. We barely stepped out of Stevie’s room before the never-ending string of questions began.
“Bear?” “Forest?” “Stevie can talk?” The questions bombarded me simultaneously.
We all took seats in the living room area and I set about answering their questions. I was hoping what they had just witnessed would keep them from laughing me out of the room. The story I had to tell them was pretty spectacular.
Dottie, the lady in her forties, started things off by introducing me to the others. Dr. Brown was the physician on staff and had been watching Stevie decline over the last several months with no idea how to help him. Hank and Stacy were the other staff members who had been in Stevie’s room. They, along with Dottie, were support staff for the students who lived here, providing whatever assistance they needed, with supervision and compassion. Other people working on the hall that night wanted to hear as much of the story as possible, so they came and went, working when needed, listening when they could, as did Dottie, Hank, and Stacy.
“I don’t even begin to know where to start asking questions,” Dr. Brown finally admitted.
“The beginning is always nice,” Stacy said.
I smiled and thought Stacy had a good idea, so I told them about my first meeting with Stevie.
Brynn has always loved to write about strong male characters and their close friendships. When she found the world of m/m fiction, she fell in love. Finally, a way to bring those strong male characters together and let those emotional connections spill over into deeper relationships. Sometimes her characters go through the emotional wringer, but they always have each other.
Goodreads Link: https://www.goodreads.com/search?utf8=%E2%9C%93&query=brynn+stein
Publisher: Dreamspinner
Cover Artist: Reese Dante
Tour Dates & Stops: July 27, 2015
Parker Williams, BFD Book Blog, Scattered Thoughts & Rogue Words, Bayou Book Junkie, Bike Book Reviews, Wicked Faerie’s Tales and Reviews, Inked Rainbow Reads, the Twins: Talon ps & Princess so, Happily Ever Chapter, MM Good Book Reviews, Reviews by Jessewave, Kimi-Chan, Mikky’s World of Books, Molly Lolly, Because Two Men Are Better Than One, V’s Reads, The Jena Wade, Carly’s Book Reviews, Havan Fellows, Sinfully Addicted to All Male Romance, Amanda C. Stone, 3 Chicks After Dark, Full Moon Dreaming, Multitasking Mommas, Rainbow Gold Reviews
Archer Hart is on the move before the man he’s just killed is found. When a bullet whizzes past his ear, he realizes hunter is now hunted. So much for his retirement plans. Someone wants him dead and all he can do is keep running.
Downed by a hit and run driver, barrister Conrad Black is certain the ‘accident’ was deliberate but he has no proof or support. In recovery, struggling to work out of partial paralysis, he has plenty of time to wonder who regrets not striking him harder. At this point, running anywhere is a distant dream.
The confidence, determination and stamina of two alphas males will mean little if neither is willing to bend—seize the love offered—and work together to understand why they’re suddenly both marked men. Not easy for either when Archer has broken the law in the worst possible way and Conrad is the law.
Review
Wow! Another amazing, gripping, very HOT and tender love story from Barbara Elsborg.
We met Conrad in book one, he was Malachi’s ex, the controlling, self-centered, almost kinda evil guy, who redeems himself at the end. He’s been struck down by a hit and run driver and was paralyzed from the accident – briefly. While he’s on the mend, he takes himself to a beach cottage and searches for the person he’s convinced tried to make the hit and run look like an accident.
On a walk one day he sees a surfer nearly drown and risks his own life to save him. That man is Archer, a murder-for hire who is trying to get out of the business. Archer also has someone after him – and he needs time to figure out who that is.
Together, these broken men – both uber alpha – struggle against their powerlessness, their attraction to one another and their pasts.
Of course – neither trusts the other – one being on the side of the law and the other being on the side of the highest bidder.
As the story unfolds it becomes clear that the men might have more of a connection than just the beach rescue.
(I’m not going into that more here – you’ll just have to read it to find out!)
**
As with book one, I thought this was an amazing story with really richly developed characters who organically grew and changed over the course of the story until they became the men who could accept the deep and abiding love that finally finds them.
I grew a bit tired at the secondary plot – it was certainly important – but I wanted to skim parts of the “intrigue” and “action” scenes.
I absolutely loved how Conrad turned from villain to good guy. It felt very real and authentic and not at all forced.
The final scenes were a little confusing to me – I wasn’t sure what Archer’s motivations were in keeping Conrad in the dark for so long – but… in the end it all worked out really beautifully and the epilogue was both hot and terribly sweet!
Bradley Zelder can’t find his way in life. After struggling for nearly a decade, he has yet to complete his college degree. Working as a school custodian, living in blue-collar Landsbury, MA, his love life is as empty as the rest of his existence. But on his way home after another disastrous date, his truck breaks down in upscale Oceanside. When he thinks life can’t get any worse, a man who is the epitome of Boston elite and everything Bradley finds attractive and intimidating helps him move his truck to the side of the road. Ashamed of his lot in life, Bradley almost lets the opportunity slip away, but he comes to his senses in time and tracks Caleb down.
From a random act of kindness, romance begins to grow, filling all the dark corners of Bradley’s empty life—until a random act of violence threatens to take it all away. Bradley must step up and be the man Caleb believes him to be. Caleb rescued him from a life without hope. Can Bradley rescue him in return?
Review
Bradley had a bad experience with a man in his early years, so he now has sex with women, but can’t connect with them emotionally.
Caleb lost his husband a few years ago and is only recently able to think about moving on.
When Bradley helps Caleb out the two find they have a strong connection that slowly builds from friendship to lovers to permanence.
About 60% through the book the focus of the book shifts to the “random acts” aspect of the title when Caleb is attacked and sinks into a depression. From there the focus changes from their relationship to dealing with life’s “haphazardness” and issues of how people handle things like “accidents” .
**
This is a tough book to review because on the one hand I liked the characters and thought the overall sentiment was really sweet and touching.
On the other hand I find Mia Kerrick’s language sometimes terribly stilted and awkward, especially when it comes to dialog.
I enjoyed the slow burn and the gradual unfolding of the love between the two men – I thought it was awesome that Caleb was able to differentiate his feelings for his dead husband and his new lover and that Bradley didn’t seem to dwell overly much in the land of jealousy for the past relationship.
I wasn’t sure that the attack (especially as it came from left field).
3 of 5 hearts
Audio
I really like Iggy Toma’s narrations and felt he did an excellent job here. He definitely added to the overall experience and I would recommend listening to this above reading it.
5 of 5 hearts
Excerpt:
Todd sought solace where he always had—in the woods where he’d camped as a kid. He could hear birds in the trees and small animals scurrying through the undergrowth, but other than that uninterested company, he was alone. The spring rains had just tapered off and Todd wanted to take advantage of the outdoors before droves of tourists descended on Edgerton. The shorter days cut into his hiking time, but he would deal with that. He wasn’t sick of his own company yet and could read by lantern light when his thoughts got to be too much.
The ground was littered with dead leaves and other detritus typical of undisturbed nature. If he hadn’t been watching where he was going so carefully—one false step could leave him with a broken leg, and even Todd wasn’t so melodramatic that he wanted to die out here—he might have missed the flannel jacket that blended so well with the forest floor. Todd was about to dismiss it as trash from a previous camper when he realized it was attached to something.
Something that looked suspiciously like a hand.
About the author:
M. Durango ~ Mar to her friends ~ has been writing on and off since her first foray into fanfic at the age of 8. Sometime in 2003, she discovered m/m romance and was hooked. Finally figuring out what she wanted to do with her life at the early age of 34, she quit her corporate job, bought a bunch of writing books, and set out to learn how to create characters, dialog, and actual plots.
Mar grew up in New Jersey and has lived in the Pacific Northwest since the mid-90s with her scientist hubby and two insane cats.
Ian Sullivan is being chased by a mobster and has to come up with five thousand dollars he doesn’t have. His only hope is an estimate for a large house. Little does he know that the house belongs to a loup garou who just happens to be his mate.
Ian Sullivan is in trouble. His father and brother died because his brother gambled and owed money to a mobster. Now Sal Ferrara want to collect from him and if he doesn’t, he’ll take Ian as his boy toy instead. Ian’s only hope is getting a job from an estimate his father had outstanding for an seventy eight hundred square foot house. Little does Ian know that the house belongs to a Remy Clavier, a loup garou who meets Ian and knows he’s found his mate. Now all Remy has to do is take care of Sal Ferrara and convince Ian, a human, to accept both him and his wolf.
Review
Ian lost his father and brother to a gambling debt with a mob boss. Now he is doing his best to make the money needed to keep him from being essentially a sex slave for that same mob boss by continuing his father’s painting business.
Remy is the second most powerful werewolf in North America and finds his mate in the house painter whose come to do his newly purchased houses.
Remy is afraid to tell Ian his truths and Ian is afraid to trust someone so obviously out of his normal circle.
Eventually they must band together for Ian’s protection and slowly grow to love one another. They keep things chaste until Remy tells Ian of his true nature and claims him as his Mate.
**
I really liked the slow burn of this novel. The author does a lot to make the whole “insta-love” more palatable and sincere.
I liked the characters and found the story interesting. I wish there was more about them being wolves, however. Besides the rules and the mating bite there is absolutely nothing about being a werewolf in this story.
My main problem was the writing itself. It’s rather stiff and awkward, there are some grammatical mistakes and the dialog isn’t very believable. Everyone is entirely too self aware and they spend way too much time dissecting their feelings. There is a lot of telling and not much showing.
I think the creativity and storylines are great and with some improved editing future works could be outstanding.
According to legend, when humankind is at its most desperate, the goddess Sirius will send three of the most powerful werewolf shifters ever created to save mankind. However, because they are so powerful, they will need a fourth to complete them, to calm them and help them reach their full potential.
Aden, a young were, has been his pack’s omega ever since, at the age of fifteen, he didn’t shift like everyone else. Caught, reviled, and tortured because of his empathic abilities, he knew on the night he was told to run as sport for the pack hunters that it would end in his death. What he didn’t know, however, was that on the same night he’d also meet the love of his life and a pathway to answers, because Aden is far more than just a pack omega.
What begins as a hunt soon becomes a new adventure as Aden discovers that he has not only one, but three destined mates, and his role as lover is far more than trivial. The fate of all humankind rests upon it.
Review
Aden is being chased by his evil Alpha when he is discovered by three wolves, Blaze, Darric and Conner. They explain (by killing him) that Aden deserves better treatment and invite Aden into their group, Orion’s Circle.
There is a legend that Sirius created werewolves to save mankind from itself and Blaze, Darric and Conner are the three werewolves set to this task. They can’t complete their task without a fourth, their Psi – Aden.
At first Aden can’t believe three gorgeous men want him for a mate and that he isn’t somehow defective like he was taught (and tortured) to believe. Then there are hurdles left in place by his old pack and the fact that they want him back. Finally, there is the fate of mankind and a war to be had to save it.
**
Oh man! Usually when I see a book with more than one partner I suspect that sex is the main focus. This is a m/m/m/m – all four men equal partners in the relationship, all mates to the other. Though Blaze is the Alpha, each man has his own important and unique skill to offer the group as well as their circle.
Aden’s journey is so heart-breaking! He was tortured for so long and his self-esteem is so low that the change is somewhat “Cinderella-like” in that he finally learns of his immense worth and is treated like a king.
There are plenty of tense moments – Aden is rescued only to be captured again and rescued again. He’s mutilated and it becomes questionable whether or not he can serve his function in the circle. Then he becomes mysteriously ill and everyone rushes to find out what can make a virtually immortal werewolf sick… you can pretty easily guess what it is but it’s exciting nonetheless.
This story grabs you right from page one and doesn’t let off til the climactic ending (which is really only the beginning) and leaves you impatient for the next in the series to come out.
I hadn’t read this author but am a huge fan after this book. I cannot wait til the next installment – I wonder what will happen when the circle is complete and the “illness” comes to fruition…. Exciting!
I highly recommend this to fans of shifters and the paranormal. The romance is sweet and the fantasy exciting.
Alexandra Monzelle is a hard-fighting, heat-packing Seattle vice cop, and she’s not much interested in being protected. Her short skirt and sex-kitten heels are tools to lure her suspects into talking about the deadly new drug hitting the streets. She can take care of herself and then some. Unfortunately, she can’t seem to get that through to Kellach Dunne.
Kellach is a fresh import from Dublin, and he’s landed at the heart of a vicious motorcycle club that deals in guns, narcotics, and mayhem. He’s all male, all rough power—and all interference in her damn investigation. Maybe he’s one of the good guys. Maybe not. Lex knows an affair with an immortal like him would risk everything. No matter how delicious he looks…
Review
Another departure (for me) from m/m. Rebecca Zanetti has been another of my favorite romantic paranormal writers for a long time. I love her “Dark Protector Series” and this is a spin-off, but the same universe and still some of the same characters.
In this case: Alexandra is a vice cop in Seattle and Kellach is a witch and an enforcer in Seattle. Both are trying to get the drug Apollo off the street, but for different reasons.
At first it is the simple misunderstanding keeping them on opposing sides: she thinks he’s a bad guy, he thinks she’s hot.
Then, she thinks he might be a good guy, he’s pretty sure she’s hot.
Then she knows he’s a good guy, but he’s still keeping secrets from her; he know’s she hot, and he’s keeping secrets from her.
Finally, they get together and BAM – he accidentally … uh – well now that’d be tellin’ – but something happens and now she knows he’s keeping things from her and that he’s a good guy and he has hell to pay; he can’t believe what he did – thank god she’s hot.
After a bit more waffling about they finally manage to defeat the bad guy, give in to true love and chemistry and with a slight little twist at the end, all’s well that ends well.
**
As far as this series goes: it was great seeing the other folks from the Dark Protectors. I wasn’t too impressed with either the hero or the heroine, though the Grizzlies – Bear, etc; seem very intriguing.
I got frustrated with Alex’s repeated trust issues and wonder why in the world Kell would put up with all that. On the one hand she seemed to swallow the paranormal stuff super easy, but at any hint that Kell may have a different agenda then what he’s told her – she’d jump off the deep end into distrust.
I also would have liked to see more of her special powers… that’s the fun part of paranormal romance – the cool crap you can do!
All in all it was good, but not great. I’ll still read the next book because it was definitely good enough.
Assassin. Soldier. Arrow. That is who Vasic is, who he will always be. His soul drenched in blood, his conscience heavy with the weight of all he’s done, he exists in the shadows, far from the hope his people can almost touch—if only they do not first drown in the murderous insanity of a lethal contagion. To stop the wave of death, Vasic must complete the simplest and most difficult mission of his life.
For if the Psy race is to survive, the empaths must wake…
Having rebuilt her life after medical “treatment” that violated her mind and sought to stifle her abilities, Ivy should have run from the black-clad Arrow with eyes of winter frost. But Ivy Jane has never done what she should. Now, she’ll fight for her people, and for this Arrow who stands as her living shield, yet believes he is beyond redemption. But as the world turns to screaming crimson, even Ivy’s fierce will may not be enough to save Vasic from the cold darkness…
Review
Yet again – I had a craving to re-visit some of my favorite m/f authors and Nalini Singh and her Psy-Changeling series is one of my all time favorites!
This is definitely one of those books where if you haven’t been reading along you will be totally lost. It is NOT a standalone. No matter what it might say anywhere else.
In this, the long awaited book, Vasic, the troubled and suicidal Arrow works with Kaleb as well as Judd to secure the re-introduction of the EPsy – the empaths – back into their powers. It is determined that the EPsy are what the NetMind has needed all this time to combat the illness.
What is left unknown is how these EPsy will take breaking Silence and just what is it they need to do and how can they be protected when those protecting them suffer just being in their presence.
Ivy is a strong EPsy whose Silence has been fractured for years. She assumes when Vasic comes to collect her that she is at last to be killed for her “faults”. From the moment they meet the two share a connection.
Then – for many pages – we work out who must do what and why for the NetMind to become fixed. Vasic and Ivy struggle with their feelings for one another – neither having any kind of experience in love/sex/relationships at all.
In the end thre is a race against time and more crushing blows to the NetMind, some reconnections with previous characters and a climactic finish setting us up for the grand finale – Shards of Hope – Aden’s story.
**
I have to admit I was disappointed in this book.
It took a lot of slugging through to reach the end.
I liked Vasic way more before he had his own book and Ivy was pretty MEH the entire time.
In previous books in the series the love was at least half the important part and I feel in these last few books, Kaleb, Vasic, Aden – more time is devoted to the greater story arc than the individual love stories.
As a fan I was glad to re-visit with Nalini’s Psy-Changeling Universe and I am excited to finally read the last story in this arc – but I am also kinda ready for it to be over.
Overall, the writing is good, I think it needed tighter editing, and maybe a more focused story line that equalized the love/romance part with the story progression.
Fifty-one-year-old Jonathan Allen is watching his friends sign domestic partnerships left and right, and for the first time considers how lonely his future might become. His last boyfriend was a parasite, hurting him in so many ways, and he’s beginning to believe living alone with his cat is a better option than chasing shadows.
When Jonathan starts working for Tricorp, a multinational construction company dealing with conservative religious countries in the Middle East and Asia, he connects with CEO Blake Carter on all levels. But the company is antigay and forces its employees to sign a reticence clause, which puts the company on the LGBT-blacklist, and Jonathan back into the closet. He knows fantasizing about Blake is a pointless endeavor. But life throws them a curveball when Jonathan’s ex and a man from Blake’s past come together to destroy both their lives.
Review
This was a frenetic explosion of a short story! We burst in the scene when Jon’s presentation to a group of very conservative businessmen is interrupted by a display of pictures showing him having sex with his boyfriend.
His boss, Blake, is quickly corralled into the mess by a member of the board with a vendetta against Blake.
In no time at all, both Jon and Blake are being escorted by security out of the building, threatened by Jon’s ex-boyfriend, the father of one of Blake’s ex and facing unemployment to boot.
Luckily, they have each other and it turns out they’ve both been harboring feelings for one another for some time.
**
This would be a great novel – it was way too much for a short story. There was too much drama covered in too few pages with a conclusion that (though very happy) felt way too rushed to feel natural or authentic.
I also didn’t bond with either MC as well as I wanted. Jon was an unreliable hero who never redeemed himself for having a relationship with someone as evil as his ex. Blake seemed all over the place, flighty, insecure, then bossy and commanding. I didn’t get a feel for him as a person very well. Beyond the sexual, I didn’t see their attraction in the other. The relationship, though born in crisis, moved way too fast to feel comfortable and therefore the HEA didn’t feel organic either.
I think this has potential, but it didn’t quite make it as a great short story.
Blurb
