Winning and losing are subject to sexy interpretation…
Navy chief Calder Euler loves to win big. His latest score? A remote mountain cabin. Checking it out is supposed to be a quick trip, but Calder’s luck abruptly turns when a freak injury and a freakier snowstorm leave him stranded.
Oh, and the cabin isn’t empty. A silver fox caring for two young girls claims that the property is his, but Calder’s paperwork says otherwise.
Felix Sigurd is on a losing streak, and his ex-husband risking the cabin in a reckless bet is only the latest in a series of misfortunes. He’ll tolerate the handsome stranger for a couple nights–even care for his injuries—but that’s it.
Calder doesn’t know a damn thing about kids, but making pancakes for Felix’s girls is a surprising delight. Trapped in the cabin, the four of them slip easily into the rhythms of a family. But when the ice melts, they’ll have to decide if a future together is in the cards.
I was really looking forward to this book after reading Sailor Proof (Arthur and Derek story). I really enjoyed that book. I couldn’t wait to read about Arthur’s older brother Calder. To see how his story would unfold.
The beginning of this book was good. I loved how it started. But as I read on. I found myself putting my kindle down here and there. It took me a bit to really get into it.
I think what really slowed it down for me was Felix. He was so standoffish. He was also kinda cold. I also wasn’t feeling their sex scenes. I know people have different ways to enjoy sex. But for me, it was hard to connect to their intimate moments.
This book dragged a little too in certain parts. But I did enjoy certain things in this book too. I enjoyed Felix’s nieces. I loved how Calder was with them. How he jumped right in with them. Just being there for both girls. I loved how Calder’s family accepted the girls.
Even though this book was ok for me. I’m still looking forward to the next book in this series.
ARC provided by Carina Press & Carina Adores (Harlequin) via NetGalley
Annabeth Albert
Frequent tweeter, professional grammar nerd, and obsessive reader, Annabeth Albert is also a Pacific Northwest romance writer in a variety of subgenres.
Emotionally complex, sexy, and funny stories are her favorites both to read and to write. In between searching out dark heroes to redeem, she works a rewarding day job and wrangles two toddlers.
‘Each time my mother laid a finger on me… it was another step into the jaws of hell. Her abuse, more so than any other, destroyed me. It was the ultimate betrayal.’
Abused from the age of eight by her older brother and then her step-father, Maureen Wood quickly became numb to the constant suffering. But Maureen’s world crumbled when her own mother started to abuse her too…
A Family Secret is the harrowing true story of how one little girl survived sickening abuse by the people who should have loved her most, and how an innocent baby finally saved her.
I had to mentally prepare myself for this book. I knew it was going to be heavy. I knew it was gonna take an emotional toll. This book was heavy. At times I felt so overwhelmed with what was going on with Tori aka Maureen.
From the age of 7 on…. Maureens life would be hell. Her childhood would be crushed by the people she trusted. It started with her brother then a short time later with her stepfather. Then after a time, her mother joined in. Maureen never had any peace. She was in a constant state of unease. She was so young!
It was all so hard to read. I just kept thinking…. How much more can a person take. It would be many years later when Maureen would have to face everything that happened to her. Her suppressing everything inside started to crack. At first it was spilling out then it started to pour out. She could not stop the flashbacks or the daily vivid nightmares of everything. It was like reliving it all over again.
This book was such a heartbreaking roller coaster. Maureen found her voice to help herself and others. She was able to open peoples eyes about not following through when people report to children services. Holding people accountable for their mistakes. I just wish she didn’t have to go through this. But I’m glad she’s at peace with her kids and grandkids.
*ARC provided by HarperCollins UK, Nonfiction via NetGalley*
The sexy Navy chief and his best friend’s adorkable little brother…
It’s petty, but Naval Chief Derrick Fox wishes he could exact a little revenge on his ex by showing off a rebound fling. His submarine is due to return to its Bremerton, Washington, home base soon and Derrick knows all too well there won’t be anyone waiting with a big, showy welcome.
Enter one ill-advised plan…
Arthur Euler is the guy you go to in a pinch—he’s excellent at out-of-the-box solutions. It’s what the genius music-slash-computer nerd is known for. So when he finds out Derrick needs a favor, he’s happy to help. He can muster the sort of welcome a Naval Chief deserves, no problem at all.
Except it is a problem. A very big problem.
When Arthur’s homecoming welcome is a little too convincing, when a video of their gangplank smooch goes enormously viral, they’re caught between a dock and a hard place. Neither of them ever expected a temporary fake relationship to look—or feel—so real. And Arthur certainly never considered he’d be fighting for a very much not-fake forever with a military man.
Also from Annabeth Albert:
Out of Uniform Book 1: Off Base Book 2: At Attention Book 3: On Point Book 4: Wheels Up Book 5: Squared Away Book 6: Tight Quarters Book 7: Rough Terrain
Hotshots Book 1: Burn Zone Book 2: High Heat Book 3: Feel the Fire Book 4: Up in Smoke
Carina Adores is home to highly romantic contemporary love stories where LGBTQ+ characters find their happily-ever-afters. Discover a new Carina Adores book every month!
I really enjoyed this book. It hit all the marks for me. I read it in one sitting. I just couldn’t get enough of Arthur & Derrick. The push & pull of them getting together was really doing it for me!
Arthur has always had a little crush on Derrick. So when his big brother called in a favor to help Derrick out, Arthur agreed. Not thinking anything more would come of this one kiss.
Derrick needed and wanted to show his ex-boyfriend that he didn’t break him when he left him for another sailor on his submarine. So his good friend Calder (Arthur’s big brother) talked him into kissing someone right when they pulled in. That person being his younger brother Arthur.
Once their lips touched… it was explosive! It took both of them by surprise. That kiss steamed rolled into something bigger. Arthur’s family thinking he was in a relationship with Derrick, invited Derrick to the family vacation.
Derrick and Arthur alone in their own cabin for a week was pretty hot! Lots of first going on in there! And I loved it!!!
“Something was happening here, something big, something I couldn’t name, and I was powerless to look away.“
I love how everyone took to Derrick. He fit right in. And went with the flow with Arthur’s family.
This book was good! And I can’t wait to read Calder’s book next!!! Not a lot was said about him. Just that he liked to take bets. He was super competitive with everyone. So we’ll see how his book turns out.
ARC provided by HARLEQUIN – Carina Press via NetGalley
Annabeth Albert
Frequent tweeter, professional grammar nerd, and obsessive reader, Annabeth Albert is also a Pacific Northwest romance writer in a variety of subgenres.
Emotionally complex, sexy, and funny stories are her favorites both to read and to write. In between searching out dark heroes to redeem, she works a rewarding day job and wrangles two toddlers.
Three Men and a Baby meets Backdraft with explosive chemistry and heartfelt feels.
Freewheeling smoke jumper Brandt Wilder thrives on adrenaline. He’s never met a parachute he can’t repair or a dangerous situation he couldn’t wrangle his way out of. He’s popular and fun-loving and not at all looking to settle down or form lasting relationships. It’s a lifestyle that’s served him well…right up until the day he finds a baby on his doorstep.
Shane Travis is used to putting his country music career—and his own happiness—on hold after his sister rolls through his life. Like last spring when she convinced him to try skydiving for his birthday—and she walked away with the hot parachute instructor.
Now he gets to deliver the piece of news that will upend Brandt’s carefree life: he very well might be a dad.
Shane’s niece is safe in Brandt’s strong, capable hands, but too many questions remain unanswered. Co-parenting while they sort it out leads to late-night talks, and soul-bearing confessions lead to a most inconvenient attraction. Still, Shane can’t leave this makeshift family behind—even if it means playing house with the one man he can’t resist.
This book had its moments for me. But it definitely took me some time to warm up to Shane. In this book.
In the beginning of this book… I was all for it. I thought it was a cute way of Shane & Bandt to meet. I especially liked how Bandt basically picked Shane as his tandem partner. Even when Shane’s sister was trying so hard to get with Bandt.
I was also seriously let down on the end of that chapter. Because we find out Brandt ended up sleeping with Shane’s sister. And that one night got her pregnant. I hated that. And it stayed with me most of the book. I hated how Shane & Brandt were giving each other looks. They had chemistry. Then later that night Brandt ended up with Shane’s sister.
“It was something.” Brandt was looking right at him, like he could see straight through Shane’s layers, strip him bare. And Shane held his gaze, held the moment as long as he could.”
I mean… I think I would be ok if it was some random girl that got pregnant. The fact that it was Shane’s sister that got pregnant… rubbed me the wrong way.
Shane was really uptight. So it took me a while to get into his character. Brandt… I like how he was a more of a go with the flow kinda guy. I also liked how it was a team effort with taking care of the baby.
Overall this was a ok read. I liked the ending. It was cute. And I liked how Shane was more open and relaxed by the end of this book.
Annabeth Albert
Frequent tweeter, professional grammar nerd, and obsessive reader, Annabeth Albert is also a Pacific Northwest romance writer in a variety of subgenres.
Emotionally complex, sexy, and funny stories are her favorites both to read and to write. In between searching out dark heroes to redeem, she works a rewarding day job and wrangles two toddlers.
High school sweethearts Mia and Luke get a second chance at love in this brand-new contemporary romance from award-winning author Garrett Leigh.
When Mia Amour returns to England to open a florist shop, all she wants to do is put her lousy ex behind her and never look back. But getting a fresh start is easier said than done when her first love, the boy who once broke her teenage heart, strolls back into her life. He’s every bit as sexy as she remembers, and the urge to melt back into his arms almost makes her forget how devastated she was when he took off without a word. Almost.
Left with no choice, Luke Daley did what he had to do, leaving town to earn enough money to save his broken family, though it just about broke him, too. But now he’s back, running his uncle’s business and trying desperately to forget about Mia, the girl he left behind all those years ago. When he runs into her in town, the shock of seeing her again brings an intense rush of emotions: love, guilt…and an overwhelming urge to find out if it’s still as amazing between them as it used to be.
It doesn’t take either of them long to give in to desire and discover the fiery passion they once shared burns hotter than ever. With each new touch, each moment of forgiveness, old hurts heal and the future they’d hoped for ten years ago becomes possible again. But their fragile connection is tested by a threat neither of them saw coming—a threat that could end their second chance before it even gets started.
This is my second book I’ve read by this author. The first was Misfits. I really enjoyed that book. So when I saw this book on Netgalley. I didn’t think twice… I requested to read it. This book I felt missed some marks for me. At times, I lost focus. It just wasn’t what I was expecting.
Things I thought should’ve been more detailed. The main one being Mia & Luke’s past relationship together. We get little bits here and there. But I think I needed a little more connection between them. It kinda felt like to me that I was jumping into their drama right from the start. I would’ve Liked a little back story. More in their teenage years, how Mia’s life was without Luke after he left the way he did. Because I felt it would’ve helped me understand them more.
I had a hard time connecting to both characters. Especially Mia’s character. I really wasn’t feeling her. I get she was upset. But at times I felt it was too much. From what I understand, Luke and Mia had a on again/off again kind of relationship. Before Luke left… things started to get really deep between them. But they weren’t in a relationship. They hadn’t even said “I love you” to each other. But they both were in love with each other.
They both had regrets. I think if they could change some of the events from their past, it would’ve played out differently.
“Well, I’m telling you now. Leaving Rushmere was the worst thing I ever did, and I’ve been paying for it ever since.”
Luke, I felt he had the weight of the world on his shoulders. He was super serious. I know he felt like he had to step up for being the oldest. But I felt he went about it all the wrong way. He needed to communicate more. He held everything in. It was frustrating. But when he finally opened up. I felt like I was finally seeing him.
“The truth is I love you, always have, and I don’t know if I can live with how much I’ve hurt you.”
Mia was angry at Luke. She was also so mean to him too. How they got together didn’t really feel like a win win kinda thing. It was cold and impersonal. And it was like a flip of a switch how she stopped being mad at Luke.
The whole stalker thing in this book. Well, I have to be honest here. It felt weird. Especially who this person was. It was really random. And again. Maybe a little back story on this person. Because I was left scratching my head going huh, what did I miss here. It didn’t flow at all. It kinda felt like it was just thrown out there.
Overall…. I just wish there was more character backstory. And maybe the drama was a little different and with different people.
I signed up for for book 2…. Blindly. I was all for Gus’s story. But I have to be honest here. Luke’s brother Billy wasn’t all that likeable. He had the same attitude Mia did in this book. So, I’m hoping this attitude doesn’t last long in Unforgotten. I just started that book. So, fingers crossed.
ARC Provided by HARLEQUIN – Carina Press via NetGalley
Billy Daley hasn’t been home in years, and he likes it that way. He’s just fine on his own—he has a cash-in-hand job at a scrapyard, a half-feral cat to keep him company, and many miles between him, his hometown and all the baggage that comes with it.
Until the job goes sideways. Suddenly he’s back in Rushmere, working for none other than his brother’s best friend—a man whose kiss Billy can’t seem to forget.
Gus Amour’s memories of Billy Daley are all spiky edges, lips crushed against lips and a reckless streak that always ended in trouble. But when Billy needs a place to stay, Gus steps in. He’d do anything for the Daley family, including living, and working, side by side with a man who makes his heart beat too fast and his blood run too hot—two things he’s been running from for years.
It doesn’t take long before their easy banter, lingering touches and heated glances become a temptation too hard to resist. But falling into bed and falling in love are two different things, and love has never come easy to either Billy or Gus. Only when fate threatens to steal away their opportunity for a second chance will they realize they don’t need easy.
They just need each other.
3.5 stars
So, I just finished this book today. I let it simmer for a bit. Trying to gather my thoughts for this book. I’ll be honest here. It was touch and go here and there. But overall, the story was ok.
Billy in the beginning was hard for me to get into. I had a hard time with his character. But once I read on…. I started see the subtle change in his character. Once he let his bad attitude drop. He became more likable to me.
Billy & Gus’s relationship was a little slow. They kept things open. They both thought if they didn’t talk about what they were doing with each other, it wouldn’t become serious. They both has issues with relationships. They didn’t want to get hurt. They didn’t want to get in too deep with each other. But they were wrong. They both fell hard for each.
Mia & Luke… Mia was still unlikable to me. Her attitude never changed. Luke was still so standoffish. But warmed up later.
The ending was good. I liked how Billy & Gus opened up to each other and were able to move past their past to be with each other. Gus was so understanding. He knew how to take Billy our of his own head. I liked that.
ARC provided by HARLEQUIN – Carina Press via NetGalley
She/Her
Bonus Material available for all books on Garrett’s Patreon account. Includes short stories from Misfits, Slide, Strays, What Remains, Dream, and much more. Sign up here: https://www.patreon.com/garrettleigh
Garrett Leigh is an award-winning British writer, cover artist, and book designer. Her debut novel, Slide, won Best Bisexual Debut at the 2014 Rainbow Book Awards, and her polyamorous novel, Misfits was a finalist in the 2016 LAMBDA awards, and was again a finalist in 2017 with Rented Heart.
In 2017, she won the EPIC award in contemporary romance with her military novel, Between Ghosts, and the contemporary romance category in the Bisexual Book Awards with her novel What Remains.
When not writing, Garrett can generally be found procrastinating on Twitter, cooking up a storm, or sitting on her behind doing as little as possible, all the while shouting at her menagerie of children and animals and attempting to tame her unruly and wonderful FOX.
Garrett is also an award winning cover artist, taking the silver medal at the Benjamin Franklin Book Awards in 2016. She designs for various publishing houses and independent authors at blackjazzdesign.com, and co-owns the specialist stock site moonstockphotography.com with photographer Dan Burgess.
The first time I met Tyler Lucas, I was seventeen. All it took was one summer to fall in love with him…but I fell hard, too hard, and not just for him…
A series of bad choices and actions causes me to leave him and our family behind. I have to find myself once again, and to do that I must dive deep.
At twenty-four, I’m a world-class diver and explorer, one of the best. But when my newest job collides with my past, will we be able to work together, especially with the stakes so high?
Down below, things can easily go wrong, and when they do, we only have two options—work together to survive, or fall apart and die.
Down we go, right into the abyss.
“Life is all about the little things. You may never be famous, you might never discover untold riches, but you don’t need it to be happy. All you need is love. If life was easy, it wouldn’t be life. It’s a journey, and just like a boat on the ocean, sometimes you hit a rogue wave or a storm, but through the storm, you learn what you’re capable of. You find your strength. Mine lies with them. My family. This is our story. This is my diver’s heart.”
Man this book was bringing out my claustrophobia!!!! All those tight spaces they had to crawl through. I would’ve dyed! 😂
I was not expecting anything I just read. It’s been awhile since I read a book nonstop. This book was so good! The writing was good. It was just what I needed!
Being a exploration diver is all new to me. This book was in such great detail that it felt like I was down there in the water with them. I loved it The mystery/suspense aspect of this book was just enough. It reminded me a lot of a movie.
The polyamory relationship going on between Peyton, Tyler, Kalen, Fin, and Riggs was well written. It wasn’t easy on Tyler. He was extremely jealous. The reason Payton left the first time was because she couldn’t only love him. She loved all of them. And she didn’t want to break Tyler’s heart. So she ran… she ran from all of them.
“It’s been three years, four days, and twelve hours since I last saw them. Not one spark of how I feel has dimmed, and watching them now, I realise it never will.“
Each man had a certain quality that spoke to Payton. Tyler was her first love, her first everything. Fin was her person she could go to, to be vulnerable. Riggs was the guy she could go to, to be comforted. Kalen was the guy to push her. Call her out on her BS. She loved all her men differently. She wanted them all.
“I’m a selfish bitch who wants them all.”
She just didn’t think they would accept that she wanted them all.
“So a harem it is?” Fin laughs. “I like it, Peyton’s Harem. We could get shirts with funny names, like Captain Cock, First Cock, Second Cock.”
Being trapped in the cave…. Heightened And brought everyone’s feeling to the surface. All the guys knew what Payton wanted and why she ran the first time. They weren’t going to let her go again.
“We’ll have to talk about…the other thing later.” “You mean the fact we’re all in love with the same woman?” Fin laughs. “I don’t see the issue. Peyton is too much for one person anyway.”
“Peyton was made to be loved, and not just by him—she needs us all. I can share,“
It was a fight for survival down in the cave. There was an unknown species out to get all of them. They had to trust each other and confront their past in order to move on.
“Tyler was my first love, and I know he will be my last too. It just so happens now that that love has changed, matured, and grown with us. Like it should.“
Payton did a lot of soul searching within herself to come to terms with what she did to her men. Leaving the way she did. Hurting them. And to accept that she was in love with 4 men equally.
“I left to be found again. Sometimes the people are right, but the timing is wrong. They were my people, but I had to find myself in the depths of this world and learn to love myself before I could love them completely.”
This book was good. A nice little surprise for me. I was fully engrossed in it. This is my first book by this author. I had no clue she wrote Den of Vipers too! I just had bought that book. So, I’m excited to start that one! Her writing is really good! So I’m excited to see where that book takes me!
BornThe United Kingdom Websitehttps://www.katieknightauthor.com/ Member SinceSeptember 2018 URLhttps://www.goodreads.com/kaknight edit data K.A Knight is a Romance author from a little town in England. She writes the monsters you love to hate. The crazier the better.
She loves her fur babies, coffee and a good book. Katie also has an obsession with monster flicks, and plans to re-watch them all!
Sometimes the people we need most aren’t bonded by blood but by something deeper.
When they were kids, golden boy Chris Mitcham rescued dweeby Theo Wooten from the neighborhood bullies and taught him how to “be cool.” Now, years later, Theo’s developed romantic feelings for his best friend that “arise” at the most inopportune times. Theo hates lying to Chris, but in coming out, he might lose the one person who understands him best, a risk he’s not willing to take.
When a relationship with another young man goes south, Theo is forced to confront his own sexuality along with his growing attraction to Chris and the stunted, tenuous relationship Theo has with his father. Will Chris abandon Theo when he learns the truth, or will he stand by him in this tumultuous season of self-discovery?
In this quirky coming-of-age romance, Theo’s path to manhood is fraught with several awkward firsts, a few haters, but also the tender comfort of an unexpected lover.
Ok, first of all… I love the cover of this book. It’s true to the story!
Theo was a 15yr old boy, soon to be 16. That was hopelessly in love with his best friend. It kind of hit him like a ton of bricks. It was a constant struggle for him to keep his emotions and feeling in check.
“Being horny and almost sixteen is the absolute worst. Take it from me, Theodore Wooten III, resident expert in the spontaneous boner. The cause of my lovesickness: Christian Mitcham. The cure: hell if I know.“
Theo had a hard time balancing how to act normal with his best friend. He often would get lost in his head and just think about things.
“We stare at each other until the oxygen runs out. Warmth radiates from my chest thinking about all the shared memories between us, and the contentment in knowing that at least one person in this world gets me, really gets me.“
Chris… I felt, gave Theo little mix signals here and there. Especially how he would be around girls. It killed Theo to see him with different girls. That’s why Theo was often getting lost in his head. Theo never thought Chris would have the same feelings for him. But… Chris would say or do these things for Theo. He was always looking out for him. Doing things for him. Protecting him. Chris never wanted Theo to worry about anything. But he did mess with Theo’s head. Because I felt it pushed Theo to try something new with a bad person.
Ok… this is the part I struggled with in this book. The person Theo thought was ok to trust his most inner secret with. Was a new kid named Dave. I mean from the very first meeting with him. It was bad. Theo has a big heart. He doesn’t like drama. He’s a laid back kinda guy. So he went against his feelings about Dave and things happened. What Dave did was unforgivable.
I wish more was said and done to Dave for what he did. I felt like he got off so easy. I hated his character from when he was introduced into this story. The way he talked and acted. I didn’t like it.
“In one way, it’s good to not have to hide it, but in another way, it’s like I’m naked in front of people all the time. Like gay is my whole personality. I’m not smart or funny or an awesome skateboarder, I’m just gay, gay, gay.“
I felt horrible for Theo. He had to deal with what Dave did and tell people about his sexuality. He wasn’t ready and it wasn’t done on his terms. It was taken away from him. I was so upset. No one should be outed the way Dave did to Theo. The panic attack Theo had was crushing. I even felt it.
But, I loved how his mom was really understanding about him being gay. She did’t care who Theo loved.
“Make sure you fall for what’s on the inside and not what’s on the outside, baby. Otherwise you’re just buying an empty box.”
This book was good. Kinda slow at times. It was frustrating. But overall it was an ok read.
Websitehttp://lauralascarso.com/ Twitterlauralascarso GenreFiction, Gay and Lesbian, Paranormal Member SinceOctober 2012 URLhttps://www.goodreads.com/lauralascarso edit data Laura Lascarso wants you to stay up way past your bedtime reading her stories. She aims to inspire more questions than answers in her fiction and believes in the power of storytelling to heal and transform a society.
When not writing, Laura can be found screaming “finish” on the soccer fields, rewatching Avatar: The Last Airbender, and trying to convince politicians to act on climate change. She lives in North Florida with her darling husband and two kids. She loves hearing from readers, and she’d be delighted to hear from you.
Single mom Jess Davis is a data and statistics wizard, but no amount of number crunching can convince her to step back into the dating world. Raised by her grandparents–who now help raise her seven-year-old daughter, Juno–Jess has been left behind too often to feel comfortable letting anyone in. After all, her father’s never been around, her hard-partying mother disappeared when she was six, and her ex decided he wasn’t “father material” before Juno was even born. Jess holds her loved ones close, but working constantly to stay afloat is hard…and lonely.
But then Jess hears about GeneticAlly, a buzzy new DNA-based matchmaking company that’s predicted to change dating forever. Finding a soulmate through DNA? The reliability of numbers: This Jess understands. At least she thought she did, until her test shows an unheard-of 98% compatibility with another subject in the database: GeneticAlly’s founder, Dr. River Pena. This is one number she can’t wrap her head around, because she already knows Dr. Pena. The stuck-up, stubborn man is without a doubt not her soulmate. But GeneticAlly has a proposition: Get to know him and we’ll pay you. Jess–who is barely making ends meet–is in no position to turn it down, despite her skepticism about the project and her dislike for River. As the pair are dragged from one event to the next as the “Diamond” pairing that could make GeneticAlly a mint in stock prices, Jess begins to realize that there might be more to the scientist–and the science behind a soulmate–than she thought.
Funny, warm, and full of heart, The Soulmate Equation proves that the delicate balance between fate and choice can never be calculated.
This book reminded me a lot like that T.V show that was on AMC called Soulmates. In this series…. People would test themselves to see if they were truly with their soulmate or if their soulmate was still out there. Even if people were married or in a relationship… they wanted to know. In this book, People would spit in a tube and GeneticAlly, the name of the company would map out certain genetic characteristics and put a number on them. Hoping to find someone out there with the same number or close to it, making them a match.
It was a lot of information to take in.
I enjoyed certain parts of this book. But I have to admit… at times this book got too technical with all the medical & Statistic data talk. I hate to say this… but I skimmed most of it. It just kept going and going.
I also felt it took awhile to get to River and Jess’s relationship. I’m 46% in and I haven’t felt little butterflies in my stomach about them getting together. It kinda feels forced. I was hoping by now… something more would have happened between them. I also felt their first kiss should’ve been a little more private. More about them and less about the pressure of putting on a show for other people.
67% in and I’m finally feeling a little something for them. But it’s a long time to wait to feel them as a couple. Jess’s holding back… I get it… but I felt it was a little too much. Then the ending with River. It was all forgive and forget. I felt Jess should’ve been a little more upset about how River treated her.
Overall, I liked this book. It was ok. I could totally see this book as a movie. But I just wasn’t over the moon in love with it.
ARC provided by Gallery Books via NetGalley
Websitehttp://www.christinalaurenbooks.com/ Twitterchristinalauren GenreRomance, Fiction, Young Adult Member SinceOctober 2012 URLhttps://www.goodreads.com/christinalauren edit data Christina Lauren is the combined pen name of long-time writing partners/best friends Christina Hobbs and Lauren Billings. The coauthor duo writes both Young Adult and Adult Fiction, and together has produced seventeen New York Times bestselling novels. Their books have been translated into 30+ languages. (Some of these books have kissing. Some of these books have A LOT of kissing.)
We don’t respond to private messages here, so please contact us via twitter (@seeCwrite for Christina and @LolaShoes for Lauren) or our site. Thank you!!
There’s one thing Jay Collier knows for sure—he’s a statistical anomaly as the only out gay kid in his small rural Washington town. While all this friends can’t stop talking about their heterosexual hookups and relationships, Jay can only dream of his own firsts, compiling a romance to-do list of all the things he hopes to one day experience—his Gay Agenda.
Then, against all odds, Jay’s family moves to Seattle and he starts his senior year at a new high school with a thriving LGBTQIA+ community. For the first time ever, Jay feels like he’s found where he truly belongs, where he can flirt with Very Sexy Boys and search for love. But as Jay begins crossing items off his list, he’ll soon be torn between his heart and his hormones, his old friends and his new ones…because after all, life and love don’t always go according to plan.
From debut novelist Jason June comes a moving and hilarious sex-positive story about the complexities of first loves, first hookups, and first heartbreaks—and how to stay true to yourself while embracing what you never saw coming.
This was a coming of age book. We see Jay dreaming and fantasizing about what it would be like to be in a relationship and do all those little milestones things we all take for granted when we meet someone. He wanted to experience all the big and little things… like holding hands with someone to the really big things like… loosing your virginity. He just wanted to experience all the different levels of it all. Being from a very small town…and the only gay person in that town. It was hard for him. He never experienced anything. He dreamed about leaving his home town. He knew that was the only way to experience it all.
So, once the opportunity came about with his mom being promoted. They got do move to a big city. Jay was so excited. He was so ready to start checking things off his Gay Agenda list. Starting a new school & joining the LGBTQIA club at his school. He finally felt at home & that his time has finally come.
“I found them,” I whispered. “I found the gays.”
I kinda felt bad for Jay. He was so trusting. So naïve about things. He hurt a lot of people without thinking how others would take his actions. The one thing he held on to for years was the one thing that hurt him. Writing down a list of things to do was one thing. How he went about to execute those those things was wrong.
I’m glad it ended the way it did. Jay learned his lesson.
“I realized the Gay Agenda was so much more. It was about connecting with another person. I’d always felt like this overlooked, sexless, invisible thing that just had to stand by while everyone else was noticed.”
If you’re looking for a coming of age kinda book. Then this is your book. I would recommend this book.
*ARC provided byHarperCollins Children’s Books via Netgalley*
A brotherhood of murderers whose nature compels them to kill. But guided by their leader, Gabriel, the Fallen have learned to use their urges to rid the world of those it is better off without.
Control. Diel has spent his entire life under it. His childhood years were spent in the sadistic captivity of the Brethren. Now the Fallen are free, but the monster that lives inside Diel is not—can not be. The darkness within is curbed by an electric collar, the only thing that stops Diel from killing everyone in his path.
Diel’s monster yearns for freedom—the freedom to tear apart Brethren priests, as many as possible, one after the other in a frenzied, liberating spree. When Diel is granted a taste of that freedom, he expects bloodlust, violence, death.
He didn’t expect to find her.
The Fallen are not the only ones chasing the destruction of the Brethren. They were not the only ones to suffer at the priests’ hands. This Diel discovers when he stumbles upon Noa, second in command of the Coven, a group of women who are intent on bringing the Brethren down.
From the second they collide, Noa seems to understand Diel in a way that no one ever has before. She is unafraid of his rage, the bloodthirsty monster that dwells within him.
Because there is a darkness inside Noa too, and it recognises the one in Diel as if it is the missing half of her soul. For years she has tried to suppress it, but as she is inescapably drawn to the fury-filled man in the collar, she starts to wonder if she can keep up the fight.
She starts to wonder if she even should…
Dark contemporary romance. Contains sexual situations, violence, sensitive and taboo subjects, offensive language, and topics some may find triggering. Recommended for age 18 years and up.
Diel opened his eyes, his hazy gaze traveling down the damp gray stone wall around him. His cheek was cold as it pressed against the freezing floor. His neck ached, the throbbing ghost of numbness snaking over his bare shoulders and the top of his spine. His head twitched, and he flitted his eyes to the iron bars that trapped him inside the cage.
The cage he knew all too well.
The monster within him rippled under his skin, waking from the forced sleep it had been plunged into. A spear of anger soared through Diel’s veins, overriding the aches and numbness and the lethargy of his muscles. Again. They had grounded him again. Lamed his monster again.
Jaw clenched and hands fisted, Diel used his waning strength to lift his torso off the slick ground and sat up. His pulse thudded faster and faster at the fact that he was in the fucking cage. But his pulse had no sooner started to race than the metal collar around his neck crackled against his already scarred and scalded skin. The electricity sizzled its warning, a sharp-fanged serpent, ready to strike the minute he lost control of his senses.
Diel breathed deeply and forced his body to still, the darkness within him to rest. Every inch of him became a statue, and the hiss of the collar lessened to a low-grade hum.
He fucking hated the collar. It was the bane of his existence. But it was a necessity.
Diel closed his eyes and thought back to how he’d got to the cage in the first place—a dream. Another fucking dream that had ripped him from sleep and had seen him racing through the manor looking for someone to tear apart, to sate the bloodlust of the monster living inside him.
No. Not just someone. His monster yearned for some very specific someones.
The Brethren. The motherfucking Brethren that he and his brothers had recently destroyed after they’d captured Maria, Raphael’s woman. The Fallen had headed to Holy Innocents, the school that had robbed them of their childhoods and fucked with their bodies and minds. They had descended, for the final time, to Purgatory, the place where they had been held as kids.
And they had burned it to hell.
The flames may have destroyed Diel’s childhood tormentors, but the rage following the inferno remained. The monster that lived inside him, seeking blood and pain and death, only grew stronger, thirstier, more intolerant of the collar that wrapped around his neck like a leash, denying both of them what they craved—death. Such beautiful, sadistic deaths by their hands.
Diel heard the sound of a pencil scratching on paper and turned his head to see Sela sitting on a chair at the side of the Tomb. He was sketching on a pad of paper, eyes fixed on whatever he was creating.
“Upper hallway, left wing,” Sela said, without taking his eyes off the pad. His long dark hair curtained his face as he concentrated on whatever picture he was purging from his creative brain onto the page. “Gabriel had us bring you down here until you awoke.”
The tendons in Diel’s neck corded. The darkness inside was more than pissed at being handled in such a pathetic way. He ground his jaw so hard that the sound of teeth on teeth made Sela lift his eyes and meet his stare.
Sela’s pencil stilled. “Third time this week.”
Diel inhaled deeply through his nose and exhaled slowly. He mentally wrestled the monster back until its presence was a dull ache at the back of his head, throbbing like the very worst of migraines. Diel sat back on his ass and laid his arms over his bent knees. His head twitched as he fought the everlasting battle to keep his anger in check.
“The Brethren,” Diel said, voice raspy with exhaustion. Sela twirled the pencil in his fingers as he listened to his best friend, the stick of wood and charcoal practically an extension of his artistic hand.
Diel’s eyes lost focus as he bathed in the memory of his collar being turned off in Purgatory. Anger had filled his veins, and Diel and the monster he kept at arm’s length had become one, united in violence and death, twin dark souls synced and, for once in their lives, calm and at peace as they plunged their twenty-inch blades into the men that had destroyed their childhoods.
Destroyed every single part of them.
“D?” Sela said, pulling Diel from his stupor.
His temples throbbed, his ever-present migraine pounding like iron bars being slammed into his brain over and over again. His migraines had always been bad, the monster never sleeping long enough to grant a reprieve. It was constantly pacing at the back of his mind, desperate to finally be freed of the collar’s stringent control.
Diel rubbed the back of his neck. “I keep replaying that night in Purgatory.” Memories of killing the Brethren flashed like a highlight reel in his mind. “When the collar was off and we finally got to end them …” His cock stirred as he recalled the feel of his blades slicing into flesh, of hitting bone when they plunged too deep. But his excitement misted away to vapor when he remembered the familiar buzz of the collar being reignited and his monster being lashed and gagged once again. “And then Gabe switched it back on.” It had been like a junkie getting his fix, the most hedonistic drug cocktail of his life, only to be abruptly forced to go cold turkey afterward.
Diel’s head twitched again as his pulse began to race at just the memory of smelling the Brethren’s blood on his skin—the sweetest perfume. His hands flexed as he felt the phantom necks that had snapped under his fingers.
The collar buzzed and sent warning volts soaring through his body. His muscles tensed as he absorbed the pain, as it hissed at the monster inside to retreat. To get the fuck back. Sweat beaded on his forehead; a single drop ran down his spine.
Gasping for air, Diel submitted to the monster’s sudden surge of power to snarl, “I want this fucking collar off. I want to be who I was fucking born to be without the restraints.” Diel tensed and threw the monster back from taking control. The monster retreated, but its anger-tipped words echoed around Diel’s head like they were being blasted through speakers. Diel’s stomach turned and a fissure of panic slithered across his fractured soul at that thought. The thought off actually being free from the collar … of what that would look like, feel like …
Diel knew his monster could never be freed. He knew the collar could never come off. It would consume Diel. It would eradicate every part of who he was.
Tillie Cole hails from a small town in the North-East of England. She grew up on a farm with her English mother, Scottish father and older sister and a multitude of rescue animals. As soon as she could, Tillie left her rural roots for the bright lights of the big city.
After graduating from Newcastle University with a BA Hons in Religious Studies, Tillie followed her Professional Rugby player husband around the world for a decade, becoming a teacher in between and thoroughly enjoyed teaching High School students Social Studies before putting pen to paper, and finishing her first novel.
After several years living in Italy, Canada and the USA, Tillie has now settled back in her hometown in England, with her husband and new son.
Tillie is both an independent and traditionally published author, and writes many genres including: Contemporary Romance, Dark Romance, Young Adult and New Adult novels.
When she is not writing, Tillie enjoys nothing more than spending time with her little family, curling up on her couch watching movies, drinking far too much coffee, and convincing herself that she really doesn’t need that last square of chocolate.
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